The Toon Files Season 6
by Brekclub85
Summary: In the final chapter of the Toon Files saga, a tournament of detectives is interrupted by the contest's staff getting killed, a group of toons stealing souls, and so many insane conspiracies! Can you figure out whodunnit before it's too late? Complete!
1. Murder at the Department Store

**The Toon Files Episode 66: Murder at the Department Store**

It had been a rough past year for Toon Town. Around 1 year ago was the infamous Ghostface massacre which had since made world history. The world where toons of various species came together was doing its best to recover. New buildings were built and memorials were established.

Rabbit and Fox were filled with anger at themselves for being unable to stop Terk and Tom Servo from claiming the amount of lives that they did.

"I was so stupid back then," Rabbit scolded himself one night.

"Rabbit….don't be so hard on yourself," Fox said, trying to comfort him.

"What can we do?" Rabbit asked.

"The mayor asked us to lead security at that upcoming tournament," Fox suggested.

"What tournament?" Rabbit asked.

…

Down below the surface, in a giant cavern, 3 figures stood waiting for someone. They included Belladonna, a purple hellhound, Prof Ratigan, a mouse (not a rat!), and Randall, a chameleon monster.

"When's the boss going to get here?" Randall grumbled.

"Patience my dear Randall," a mysterious cloaked figure said, stepping onto a platform. "It's needed for this operation."

"Do you have the artillery?" Ratigan questioned.

"Indeed," the mysterious figure replied, tossing each of them an oddly shaped gun. "Using these, you steal the soul of whoever the ammunition hits. Can I trust you to obtain as many powerful souls as possible?"

"It's what I do," Belladonna laughed.

"Good," their mysterious employer replied. "Remember, if you get who I want I'll give who you want…."

…

**Tokyo, Japan 2011.**

In the big city of Tokyo (where for some reason in this world nearly everyone had English names) resided Conan Edogawa, a 7-year old detective. However, he wasn't really 7 years old. He was really high school detective Jimmy Kudo. You see, one night on a case he witnessed some shady events going on by some men in black. As he tried to get a closer look, Jimmy got conked on the head and fed a strange poison intended to kill him. But when he woke up….his body had shrunk back to the size of a second-grader!

Taking the alias of Conan, Jimmy moved in with his girlfriend Rachel Moore and her bumbling detective father Richard. He kept his identity a secret while he continued to solve cases by knocking Richard out with some gadgets from his inventor friend Dr. Agasa, and used Richard's voice. He's so far only received a few leads on the mysterious organization.

….

One evening, Conan and Rachel were at a big department store.

"Hmmm….dad's out drinking and gambling again," Rachel said, looking at the jacket section, "Can't really say I'm surprised anymore…."

"With Richard, we really need to hold an intervention," Conan snarked as he rode the down escalator to the bottom floor.

Currently, there were 3 employees working the registers: Carol Myers, Arthur Stanton, and Diane Miller.

"Got a new pearl necklace," Diane smirked to her friends.

"Looks rather cheap compared to my watch," Arthur replied, showing it off.

"Now, now, you know Gabby's policy about valuables," Carol reminded, "We need to keep them safe in our employee lockers."

"And you 3 should know that on the job slacking is not appreciated," Gabby Norton, the manager said rather scolding.

"Yes Gabby," they all replied nervously.

As Conan was looking at the novel section, he noticed Gabby walk away, sighing rather depressed to herself.

….

"Come on Conan, I think dad's had enough to drink," Rachel said, seeing her father at the door, trying to keep his balance.

"Thankfully we called for a taxi," Conan said.

"You…two…missed the best part of the race," Richard said, referring to when he had been watching the horse races.

But just then, as they were about to leave, a panicked scream was heard coming from the upper level.

"What was that?" Richard asked, the idea of a murder an instant-alcohol effect remover for him.

Conan, Rachel, and Richard raced up the escalator and soon came across Carol scrambling out of the employee's closet, panting in horror.

"What's the problem miss?" Richard asked.

"T…that," Carol pointed silently. They looked up to see Gabby, a noose around her neck, hanging dead from a bar on the coat rack.

Par for the course, Conan gasped and Rachel screamed.

…..

10 minutes later, Inspector Meguire and the police force had arrived at the scene.

"A hanging victim eh?" the inspector figured, "A 46-year old named Gabby Norton. Seems she was the evening shift manager at this store."

"And the cause of death is indeed strangulation by this rope, sir," a coroner nodded.

"She was," Arthur nodded, trying to keep his eyes off the body.

"How does it look Moore?" Meguire asked Richard.

"Well inspector," Richard replied, looking over the scene, "We may not have all the clues yet, but from what I can tell, this is a suicide."

"Makes sense," Meguire replied, "This is a pretty isolated location, and her employees testified that she felt depressed recently."

"What brought along that?" Richard asked Carol, Diane, and Arthur.

"Well, to be honest, this store was only a few months away from going out of business," Arthur explained.

"Really? I liked this place…." Rachel replied.

"Ms. Norton fought long and hard to keep up with the competition," Diane continued, "But all the bigger stores kept producing more frequent and cheap sales. She told us it was only a matter of time before she had to close for good."

"She got really depressed after she realized this was inevitable," Carol added, "We'd rarely see her smile, even at the last Christmas party we held here. This store was her life, and she was being forced to give it up. I felt bad for her."

"Then suicide it is!" Richard deduced, "The case is solved!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," a small voice suddenly spoke up. Not surprisingly, it was Conan. "There are a few things that just don't sit right."

Richard frowned and gave Conan a conk on the noggin, though not enough to knock him out. "Is the phrase "children should be seen and not heard" familiar to you at all, brat?"

"You're the one who's not looking," Conan frowned, rubbing his head, " Look at her high heels. It looks like they scraped against something. And doesn't that blood on her palm bother you at all?"

"Why you…..blood on her palm?" Richard asked confused.

"Look here, there's some blood and a little slice mark on the palm of her hand," Conan pointed out.

"The kid's right, Moore," Meguire nodded, examining the victim's hand carefully, "There's some blood here. Perhaps she got into a fight with the killer, and got this wound, and the killer decided to make it look like a suicide."

"But shouldn't somebody have heard a struggle?" Richard pointed out, "Even though this place is big, if you yelled for help somebody would certainly hear her."

"Unless," Conan spoke up, that "cool, thinking glare" appearing in his glasses, "The one who attacked her was someone she knew…."

Richard, Meguire, and the rest of the police force listened, they had to realize that Conan did notice some details that they themselves had missed in the past.

"Did Ms. Norton have any family members in town?" Meguire asked Diane.

"No, she lived by herself, her only sister is in Osaka," she explained in response.

"So that means…." Conan smirked, "The killer could be one of you three, you knew this store."

Carol, Diane, and Arthur all gasped.

"You have to be kidding," Arthur said, "Why would any of us kill her?"

"We'll be the ones asking questions," Meguire replied, "We want to hear your alibis now."

…..

The 3 suspect employees led the police down the escalator to the break room on the department store's first floor.

"The time of death was between 7:25 and 7:30 this evening," the inspector explained, "I'll want to hear all of your alibis for that time period."

"I was in here, watching the baseball game," Carol said, taking a soda out of the mini-fridge. "Baseball's my main interest in life."

"Can you prove you were here?" Richard asked, raising his eyebrow in suspicion.

"Yeah, no problem," Carol replied, "At 7:29 exactly, Kevin Fisher struck Cal Robbins out with a pop fly to left field."

"What does that prove?" Richard frowned.

"This TV set in here is the only way I could've possibly seen the game," Carol informed, "And, even if I ran, it's about 3 minutes to the closet where Gabby was found dead."

"Damn it," Richard frowned, hoping he would have an easy solution to the case. Richard truly wasn't an idiot, but his biggest flaw as a detective was that he preferred to settle with solutions that were a little too simple, as he often had other places he'd rather be (IE drinking, watching the horse races, or listening to the pop idol he had a crush on, Yoko Okino).

"We still have two more to question," Meguire pointed out.

…..

Diane led Conan and the others down to where she had been at the time of the crime.

"Gabby asked me to straighten the shelves on this floor," she explained, "I've done that job countless times before, so I did it again tonight."

"That's a pretty flimsy alibi," Conan pointed out, looking at the store's contents himself.

"What do you mean kid?" Diane asked, offended.

"Actually, go on Conan," Meguire encouraged.

"If the store really wasn't that busy, you could straighten everything ahead of time and then go kill your manager, it wouldn't be that hard," Conan smiled like an actual little kid. "And you must've not cleaned up over here, there's a dark mark." He pointed to a black streak in front of the down going escalator.

"Where did you come up with a theory like that Conan?" Rachel asked.

"Um….I saw a made for tv movie," Conan said, not wanting to blow his cover.

"Well, there's a problem with your theory kid," Diane chuckled, "If all of you will follow me, please…."

…..

The cops and the employees were now at the security camera room.

"We've had very few incidents here," Carol said, "So we only have cameras that show footage at certain parts of the store at a time."

"That…doesn't really seem like a good idea," Richard pointed out.

"Eh, what can we do?" Arthur said, shrugging his soldiers, "All 3 of us are going to have no jobs because of this death anyways…"

"What is it you wanted to show us, mam?" Inspector Meguire asked Diane.

"This," Diane pointed, "This camera points to the top of the escalator, the one going up, at the death's timeframe, according to your team, correct?"

"Yes, it does," Meguire nodded.

"Well, as you can clearly see, I never went upstairs at that time, so I couldn't possibly have been the one who killed my boss," Diane assured.

"So that leaves….Mr. Stanton here," Richard noted.

…..

"I'm telling you, it wasn't me," Arthur said.

"Your scheme is falling apart eh?" Richard smirked, "After all, you told us that your boss assigned you to straighten the shelves on the upper level."

"That doesn't prove I killed her!" Arthur gasped, nervously.

"Then tell me where I go off," Richard challenged, "You were on the same floor as the victim, and you are definitely the strongest of the 3 possible suspects. None of the girls went up the escalator. It all fits into place…"

"Fits into place.." Conan thought in his regular, Jimmy voice, "Could it be?" Something had been bothering him for a while, and he was beginning to get an idea of what that was.

…

Conan raced back to where the body was hanging. He felt the answers he needed could be found at this place. He noticed, that, based on the noose marks, the rope had been pulling all around the victim's neck

"There should be something here…." He kept telling himself, when he examined the blood on the victim's hand again.

Something off did catch his eye. "There's a small speck where there's no blood at all," Conan thought, "What could have caused this?"

He then looked down at the victim's shoe and noticed something. There was a small object inside the shoe that wasn't supposed to be there.

"I've got you now, I know who killed Gabby Norton!" Conan thought triumphantly. He now knew for sure who was behind everything, he had what he needed to solve the case.

….

"We can hear more of your story down at the station," Meguire told Arthur.

"IT WASN'T ME!" Arthur begged.

Conan, wasting no time, aimed his stun gun wristwatch at Richard, knocking him out and quickly went to the right number on his bowtie voice emulator. "Wait a minute Inspector," Conan called, using Richard's voice, "I've finally gotten to the bottom of this case. Arthur isn't the killer."

Arthur looked relived, but Meguire confused. "Then who is the killer?"

"None other than Ms. Diane Miller!" Conan revealed.

"What?" Everyone gasped, Diane especially.

"How could you even say that, Detective Moore? I wasn't even on the second floor at the time of death."

"That's because we were looking in the wrong direction Diane," Conan replied, "The actual scene of the crime was on the first floor. You used a very clever trick….the escalator. That's why Gabby never called for help, you put the noose around her neck when you had the other end jammed in the escalator, and that proceeded to strangle her."

"A preposterous story," Diane replied, "How do you know she died on that floor?"

"That scrape mark Conan noticed earlier aroused my suspicions," Conan explained through the bowtie, "The sheer force of the down escalator knocked her down, but not before her high heel scraped the floor, leaving that mark."

Diane was beginning to look unnerved. "Even so….Carol or Arthur could've used the same trick! Why accuse me?"

"The blood on her hand," Conan revealed, "More specifically, that one tiny spot where there isn't blood."

"What's so important about that?" Meguire asked.

"Oh crap…." Diane started to realize mentally.

"Check the victim's shoe," Conan explained.

The inspector did so, and when he peeked inside, he found…..one of the pearls from Diane's necklace!

"The necklace!" Carol gasped.

"Tell me," Conan said to a Diane who was frozen in shock, "Since that pearl comes from your necklace, how did it end up in the victim's shoe?"

Diane grumbled, "Fine, you win! Enough already! I killed her!"

"Diane….how could you?" Arthur asked, "Gabby was always kind to you."

"Oh zip it Arthur," Diane replied, "That witch blamed me for this store's closing down."

"What do you mean?"

"I posted some ideas I had for new outfits on the internet. The rival stores made outfits similar to that, and those became their biggest selling items of the year. Gabby thought I had given the stores the idea directly, and was pissed off at me behind the rest of your backs. She revealed secrets I had told her onto the internet and made my live a living hell. She had to pay."

"That's no reason to kill someone," Conan scolded calmly using Richard's voice.

"The shrew had it coming to her," Diane frowned.

…..

Just as Conan was watching the culprit get taken away, a letter came from nowhere and landed at his feet.

"It's addressed to you Conan," Rachel said, surprised. "What does it say?"

Conan was just as surprised as his girlfriend. "It says I'm invited…" he began to read, when he was suddenly warped out of the store.

"WHAT THE HECKK?" he exclaimed as he flew through a vortex. He could've sworn he saw something glide past him. He didn't have enough time to see who or what it was, though.

…..

Conan, after several seconds, landed in the lobby of a hotel. Given what had just happened, the young detective thought this was all a dream and he just ended up in some fantasy medieval kingdom where he would have to go slay a dragon.

"What a landing…" he groaned, adjusting his glasses. Looking around, he saw some cats, a dragon, more humans with odd tastes in clothes, a pony, and what looked like puppets.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Welcome, one and all!" A voice called through a PA system, "To the first ever Toon Town Tournament of Detectives!"


	2. Payback is Sweet

**The Toon Files Episode 67: Payback is Sweet**

"Tournament of detectives?" Conan asked, surprised yet intrigued, "This is the type of game I can excel at."

"I've never played a game like this before," the pony, named Twilight Sparkle admitted, "But I can always give it a shot."

Several toons from other worlds had gathered at the Toon Town Grand Resort and Amusement Park to watch the big event, it would last several days.

"Cool…" Bartok said, flapping around at the front gate, "Never thought I'd get to go here."

The voice over the PA system spoke up again. "16 detectives have been chosen to participate because of their superb deductive talents. Will the ones given a detective badge please proceed to the Grand Auditorium?"

"Follow us," a voice spoke up. 4 people came up, with tags that said "Tournament Staff."

"I'm Tammy Connors," said the bear of the 4.

"I'm Percy Ivers," a kangaroo said.

"I'm Vivian Thompson," a vulpine smiled.

"And you can call me Dom Cobberman," a cat smirked, "Follow us please."

…

In the resort's auditorium, the 16 detectives were standing around, arranged in a line when the host of the event finally made an appearance. A platform arose onto the stage, and off stepped….a mysterious figure in a mask.

"Can you show us your face?" Monty Carlo, a kart racer who had a torso, head, hands, and feet but no limbs called.

"My identity is not important," the host said in a soothing voice, "What's important is finding out who is the best detective among you all, allow me to introduce…"

"The fire breathing dragon, Spyro! The detective of Dapplewood, Abigail! The little boy with the big brain, Conan Edogawa! The pretty clever pony, Twilight Sparkle! The cooking case solver, Chowder! The jungle's finest mind, Bagheera! The feline Holmes, Francis! The tactical lioness, Kairel! The racing genius, Monty Carlo! The stinky sleuth, Skunk! The river spirit dragon, Haku! The high summoner detective, Yuna! The passive aggressive caller, Hadassah Gubberman! The fat cat, Garfield! The thin cat, the Baron! And lastly, the magic bat, Bartok the Magnificent!"

All 16 detectives took a bow, as the organizer explained how the game would work. The tournament rules proved to be not that complex.

"Here's how the tournament will work. It is a 1 on 1 elimination tournament, with 8 people eliminated in the first round, then 4 in the next, 2 in the semifinals, then 1 winner is crowned after the final match. The winner of that will be allowed to solve the mystery of Starlight Manor! As for the gameplay, video recordings have been taken of the cases that each of you solved to qualify for the tournament. When the matches are set, each of you will be watching the video of your opponent's case. The first one to solve the other's case wins the match and moves on to the next round. No one is allowed to discuss the other's cases, or they will be disqualified!"

"I can play fair," Francis said, after what this cat had dealt with in the past, now crime was too severe for him. I mean, he dealt with a sadistic serial cat killer prior to this. Nothing else he encountered could be worse.

"And now, before the main games start, I want to warm up all the detectives, as well as any of you folks viewing this competition, with a warm-up mystery. This will set the mood and get us off to a light-hearted start."

"Oh, this'll be fun," Dom snickered to his fellow staff members from the sidelines.

"Just watch the case," Percy said.

"I'm just bored," Vivian yawned.

…

**Lazytown, Iceland, 2004.**

Lazytown may be the king of "Towns with Non-Accurate Names." This colorful village considted of Stephanie, a sport-loving girl who wore more pink than Aelita, Ziggy, a blond cape-wearking kid who loved candy, Pixel, the computer and video game whiz, Trixie, the trickster, Stingy, the kid with the possessive issues, Mayor Meanswell, Stephanie's uncle who always has good intentions, and Ms. Busybody, who has a little crush on the mayor.

However, there's also Sportacus, a hero who lives in an airship up above and helped make the town active, and Robbie Rotten, the lazy bum who lives in his underground home who tries to get the kids to stop playing sports and just be lazy. (Ironically, his schemes often involved him putting a lot of effort into them.)

And today was an event. Robbie, just wanting to take a nap, had made a bet on a race: If he beat Sportacus, the kids would have to play inside and not make noise all day.

"You can do it, Sportacus," Stephanie smiled, "You can outrace Robbie Rotten any day of the week."

"That may be true," Sportacus nodded, "But that's not to say I shouldn't prepare myself for the race."

"You are going to do jumping jacks?" Trixie asked.

"Indeed," Sportacus nodded, "And I'll need some sports candy as well." "Sports candy" was the town's nickname for fruit, "It'll give me the extra energy I need."

"There's an apple right there," Pixel pointed, seeing one on one of the town's walls.

"I'll get it," Sportacus smiled, doing some impressive yet very unnecessary front flips to reach the fruit, even though the distance between them was only about 20 feet.

"We'll mark the start and finish lines with MY tape," Stingy spoke up.

….

The race was about to begin.

"I know I'll beat Sport-a-kook this time!" Robbie said to himself determined, he really wanted to just kick back and relax.

The mayor came up, holding the starting flag. "Are you both ready?" he asked the contestants.

"Hold on a second mayor," Sportacus smiled, taking a bite of the apple.

"On your marks…." The mayor began to say. Sportacus all of a sudden felt very tired. "Get set…."

"Something's wrong guys," Stephanie said.

"What is it?" Stingy asked.

"Sportacus seems tired," Pixel noticed, "He shouldn't be like that."

"GO!" the mayor exclaimed. To everyone's surprise, Robbie got off to an early lead.

"Go Sportacus! Go!" the kids cheered on. But their cheers were proving to have little impact on the race.

"I'm…so tired," Sportacus yawned, barely able to move. Gradually, he began to come nearer and nearer to a complete stop.

"I'm winning?" Robbie asked, surprised by his own good fortune. "I'm winning! Ha Ha!" He raced towards the finish line as fast as he could.

Indeed, Robbie ended up winning the race.

"No way…." Trixie frowned.

"I won! I won!" Robbie announced cheerfully and danced around like a little kid. "And now you little brats have to go inside and be lazy all day, and I can finally get a nice quiet nap!"

The kids all frowned, they knew this wasn't right.

"I guess he won children," Mayor Meanswell sighed, "But the bet only takes effect for today."

"This isn't right uncle," Stephanie commented, "There's no way Sportacus would've gotten tired like that right before a race. Robbie must've cheated, and I'm gonna find out how he did it."

"And we'll help too, pinkie," Trixie offered, Stephanie's friends stepping forward.

…

Back in the auditorium, Conan could only mentally snicker at the simplistic case that had been presented before him.

"Is this what they call a warm-up?" the teenager who had been shrunk back down into a kid thought, "Scooby-Doo provided harder to solve mysteries than this."

Indeed, the detectives who had encountered crimes that were more along the lines of murder found this case to be a major step down in terms of difficulty.

Rabbit and Fox were watching the event from the doors leading to where everyone was gathered.

"I just hope nothing goes wrong here," Rabbit said, "We don't want a repeat of last year…."

"Don't worry your fuzzy little tail off dear," Fox smirked to her husband, giving him a kiss, "Skunk's match is early in the first round from what I heard."

"Cool," Rabbit said, beginning to cheer up.

"Say," Fox grinned, "We're not really needed until the games officially begin, and the gymnasium in the hotel is the open, why not have a practice match?"

That made Rabbit grin. Though he and Fox had taken up law enforcement, they made good use of their kung fu knowledge, and were constantly practicing to keep their skills up.

"You're on," Rabbit grinned, hopping along to the gym.

…

Back in the practice video, Stephanie had changed into her little detective costume she had worn before. "There's been foul play my friends," she said seriously.

"But I wasn't going to be making chicken tonight Stephanie," the mayor said in confusion to his niece.

"That's not what I meant uncle," Stephanie laughed, "I meant that something not write happened here today. Do you guys have any ideas?"

"I think I know," Pixel smirked, "Sportacus ate that pple right before he got tired, right?"

"Yeah, uh-huh," everyone else nodded.

"Well, it must've been a fake apple made by a Candy Faker Maker 3000, like Robbie tried before," the gamer of the group explained.

"Good thinking Pixel," Stephanie smiled, "Now all we need to do is find the machine to prove that Robbie cheated."

"But when can we look, pinkie?" Trixie asked, "The apple was found on a wall. Robbie could've created it anywhere."

"That's why we have to start up in the sky," Stephanie smiled, "Or rather, in a tree."

…

The kids had built a treehouse for a competition some time ago for a contest, and have made use of it since.

"I was in the treehouse earlier today," Stingy said, "Playing with MY ping pong paddle."

"Oh Stingy," Stephanie sighed, "Did you see anything weird from up here?"

"Not really," Stingy asked, "But then again, I didn't think I had to keep my eye out for a Candy Faker Maker 3000."

"Good point," Stephanie and Pixel nodded.

"Though, if we need tools, I can help," Stingy grinned. "MY dad leant me his wrench, his screwdriver, and his drill."

"I don't think we'll need those," Stephanie replied, "Stingy, you stay up here and look for the machine. Here's a walkie-talkie, call us if you see anything."

"Got it," Stingy nodded, as his friends made their way down the ladder.

….

"Milford!" Bessie called to the mayor.

"Uh, yes Ms. Busybody?" Mayor Meanswell asked, "How can I help you?"

"Have you seen my big bag of sugar?" she asked as the kids walked past, "I left it open because I was going to make some cookies today, but I guess it got moved by somebody."

"I'll contact the lost and found person," Milford replied.

"Um…Milford," Ms. Busybody pointed out, "You ARE the lost and found person here in Lazytown."

"Oh, right," the Mayor blushed in embarrassment, "I'll get right on that job. You can count on me!"

Stephanie smiled, it was clear her uncle had a crush on Bessie.

….

"I'm not seeing it you guys," Trixie called, looking over the hedges of some of the houses.

"Maybe Robbie hid it behind something," Stephanie suggested, "Trixie, does your mom still have her hedge clippers?"

"Yeah, she does," Trixie nodded, "Why? Do you need it for something?"

"Go grab it," Stephanie smiled, "It can help us get to hard to reach places to see if Robbie hid the machine there."

"Got it pinkie," Trixie nodded, taking off from the rest of the group leaving just Stephanie, Pixel, and Ziggy.

"You guys want me to get more candy?" Ziggy asked.

"No, but could you go grab that candy apple Sportacus ate?" Stephanie asked her friend.

"You got it," Ziggy nodded.

Stephanie turned to Pixel, "We're gonna need your technology," she smiled.

…

"Ok, I got this online," Pixel grinned, "This satellite gives me an overhead view of Lazytown. We'll find the candy maker in no time flat."

"But I can't see it yet," Stephanie noticed. "Can you get the video footage go back a few hours?"

"I'm afraid can't," Pixel said, "But we know the machine has to be somewhere. None of us had an apple out of a tree today, and none of our parents had any apples."

"Guys! Guys!" Ziggy grinned, "I got it! I got it!" He handed the two the candy apple and went back outside.

Stephanie looked over the apple closely. "Wait a minute…." She realized, feeling the texture of the snack, "This is an actual apple, with sugar in it."

"How could that be?" Pixel asked.

Stephanie than looked at something next to where Sportacus bit the fruit. "This isn't a bite mark…" she noticed, and then it hit her.

"What is it?" Pixel wondered.

"I know what happened!" Stephanie smiled, "Follow me!"

…..

Stingy was still up in the treehouse when the rest of the kids climbed up the ladder. "Did you find the Candy Faker Maker?" Stingy asked.

"We didn't," Pixel replied, "Because there was no machine to be found."

"You were the one who made an apple get all sugary," Stephanie pointed to Stingy, "You were the one who made Sportacus lose the race."

"How could that be?" Stingy laughed.

"You took Ms. Busybody's bag of sugar, and placed it under a tree," Stephanie began to explain, "And then you used your ping pong paddle and a ball to knock an apple out of the tree."

"You needed to make sure Sportacus would eat the right apple, you placed it on the top of the wall so it would stick out. And once the apple fell in the sugar bag, you drilled a tiny hole into it so even if Sportacus noticed the sugar on the sports candy, he wouldn't notice the sugar that had seeped inside."

"Where's your proof?" Stingy asked nervously.

"You said it yourself," Stephanie replied, "You had your father's drill, which was just big enough to make this." She presented the apple and pointed next to the bite mark. "This little bit right here didn't come from someone's teeth, Stingy."

Stingy sighed, looking sad. "Fine, I did it. It was MY plan."

"But why did you do it?" Trixie grumbled, "Thanks to you, now we can't play for the rest of the day."

"It's YOUR fault," Stingy pointed, "A week ago, when you guys were playing pirates, and you didn't let me join in."

"We weren't trying to exclude you, Stingy," Stephanie said, feeling bad for her friend, "We meant to say that we were done with the game by the time you had woken up. I guess I didn't make that clear. If you felt bad about that Stingy, you should've told us."

"I'm sorry…." Stingy apologized earnestly. "You guys aren't mad anymore?"

"I guess so," Trixie nodded, she was usually the one who was upset with Stingy's antics the most.

Stephanie smiled, "Let's go plan what we can play together for tomorrow, all of us."

Stephanie, Ziggy, Pixel, Stingy, and Trixie all set off to enjoy the day.

…..

Back in the Toon Town resort, all of the 16 competiting detectives had managed to figure out the test caper.

"What a simple puzzle," Conan said, yawning out of boredom.

"You can do it Twilight!" Spike, a purple dragon (no connection to Spyro however) called from the crowd. Standing next to him was Fluttershy, another pony who was a good friend of Twilight's.

"I hope everyone just has fun," she smiled gently.

The mysterious host came onto the stage again. "Before we set these detectives off to compete for the champion title, time to show them all what they can win!"

"Good, prices," Abigail grinned.

What none of them knew was that it was only a matter of time before this game would turn deadly….


	3. Fear of the Dragon

**The Toon Files Episode 68: Fear of the Dragon**

More platforms on the auditorium's stage descended then lowered to reveal they were movable platforms as well. A slew of prices soon appeared.

"Wow…." Chowder awed, the cat chef looking and hoping that food was a possible prize.

"Runner up prizes," the host grinned behind his mask cheekily, "Include this Plasma TV, this new trampoline, this fine jet ski, this Playstation 3 console, and a new rug!" No one seemed excited about that last price.

"Rather lame," Tammy laughed to Percy.

"And, to add excitement to the matches," the host continued, twirling a necklace that looked like a little double-edged sword, "The matches are held in some preselected, wacky locations all around this fine resort!"

The brackets for the first round of the detective duels stood like this:

Match 1. Spyro Vs. Skunk (on top of the Ferris Wheel.)

Match 2: Conan Vs. Bagheera (on a platform suspended over the wave pool).

Match 3: Twilight Sparkle Vs. Haku (on a giant glass elevator).

Match 4: Bartok Vs. Hadassah (on a slow moving roller coaster).

Match 5: Yuna Vs. The Baron (on top of the resort's sign).

Match 6: Monty Vs. Abigail (in the resort's arcade).

Match 7: Francis Vs. Kairel (on a table on the resort's grill restaurant).

Match 8: Chowder Vs. Garfield (in the hotel lobby).

"Detectives, proceed to your arenas!" the host grinned. He had a level of enthusiasm rivaled only by game show hosts.

….

Meanwhile, Belladonna, Ratigan, and Randall had made their way into the Toon Town Resort.

"Let's go steal some souls," Randall grinned, readying his weapon.

"Not now you fool," Ratigan scolded, "If we try anything right away, we'll cause a massive panic and be caught before we claim enough." Sure, the rat professor may have had his insane moments, but he could indeed come up with a good strategy for his evil.

"That's right," Belladonna nodded, "We just wait until the powerful ones are isolated, and then we make our move."

….

All of the 16 were gathered in their respective arenas.

"Good luck," Yuna wished her opponent.

"Bring it on, dragon boy," Skunk taunted Spyro as the Ferris Wheel they stood atop began circling.

"Be glad I don't make you fodder," Spyro snickered. Indeed, skunks were one of who knows how many species the dragon would use his flame breath on.

An electronic voice said "Round Start!" and the videos began playing for each detective.

Spyro looked at Skunk's case while Skunk looked at Spyro's.

…..

**Summer Forest, Avalar, 1999.**

Time had been easy now for Spyro the dragon. He had defeated the Sorceress and was now able to relax with his new friends. They included Hunter the cheetah, Bianca the magic rabbit, Sheila the kangaroo, Agent 9 the laser wielding monkey, and Elora the fawn.

The friends were relaxing in the peaceful castle of Summer Forest in the world of Avalar, where Hunter and Elora lived.

"The falling leaves sooth me," Sheila smiled.

"You just don't get more nostalgic than this," Elora smiled, remembering that this was where Spyro had first met the fawn and her friends when the dragon arrived in the world of Avalar.

"Boring, not enough Rhynocs to shoot," Agent 9 complained, pointing his laser in various directions.

"I thought the professor confiscated that," Elora said, being the sensible one of the group.

"Eh, he didn't confiscate my crossbow either," Hunter grinned, firing one arrow ahead to show off his new "toy."

"Duck!" Bianca called, as the arrow had a bit of recoil before it fired properly.

"Good thinking," Hunter nodded, "I really need to have that fixed."

"I'm the only one with a job to do…" Spyro frowned as the group prepared to dive underwater, which was the only way into the castle. "One of the elders asked me to watch this egg today." The dragon carefully placed the egg on his snout as the group took the dive.

"Don't worry Spyro, you're responsible," Elora assured.

….

Once the group got inside the castle, they all dried their fur or scales off.

"I hate getting wet," Hunter shivered, "All cats do…"

"Oh, kitty can't handle water?" Bianca teased cutely."

"The central garden is the perfect place for a picnic guys," Elora said. The group agreed with that statement.

"I can handle the broiling," Spyro snickered, placing the egg down gently by one of the trees.

"This is still boring," Agent 9 yawned, "Is there anything I can shoot?"

"I believe we have some targets near the dungeon entrance," Hunter recalled.

Agent 9 grinned, running off to go get them.

"Make sure he doesn't bring the place down," Elora told Sheila.

"I'm on it," the kangaroo nodded, taking off after the monkey.

"I have something I have to write," Bianca said, I'll be right back."

"I need to put my arrows away," Hunter said.

"We just need a few more supplies Spyro, I'll go grab them," Elora offered.

Spyro then noticed that Sparz, his dragonfly companion, was hungry for butterflies. He decided to go get some, which could be found near the portal to one of the lands called Aquarias Towers.

But after the group all left, one secretly came back and looked at the egg Spyro was told to be watching over…..

…

A few minutes later, the group met up. Sheila was walking a bit funny.

"What happened to you?" Bianca asked.

"Agent 9 singed my tail," she frowned.

"It was an accident," Agent 9 apologized, "You stepped right in front of the targets.."

"You weren't focusing your trigger happy chimp!" Sheila growled, teeth bared.

"I bumped my head on a wall if that cheers you up," Hunter said, showing a bandage on his forehead above his eye.

Spyro then walked to where he had placed the egg. What he saw then made him panic. The egg was missing! He started to panic, charging all around the immediate ground.

"What's wrong Spyro?" Elora asked, concerned.

"The egg's gone!" Spyro called. Everyone looked surprised.

"Oh no," Elora said, "Are you sure you didn't misplace it."

"I don't think that's the case, goat girl," Agent 9 said.

"I'm a faun you dork," Elora frowned, offended.

"No, it's not here…." Spyro said, looking in every direction. "Someone must've moved it!"

The group stayed silent for a moment. They knew that none of those annoying, blue, constantly giggling and taunting egg thieves were in Avalar, so if anyone took the egg…..it had to be one of them.

Both Agent 9 and Sheila eyed Bianca suspiciously.

"What are you looking at?" the rabbit girl asked.

"You've had some experience in the art of dragon egg stealing," Sheila pointed out.

"Perhaps you had a bit of a regression at this very moment?" Agent 9 accused. Bianca had formerly worked for the evil Sorceress, collecting the dragon eggs. She had learned magic this way, but at first she didn't know the Sorceress' true intentions. When she learned that the Sorceress intended to kill all the baby dragons to gain a form of immortality, Bianca immediately changed her ways and joined Spyro and Hunter.

She and Hunter were now dating, by the way.

"You better not be accusing me," Bianca frowned, "I don't do that kind of stuff anymore. You know me better than that, guys."

"Guys, guys, we have to stay calm," Elora informed. Though she was not much of a fighter, she knew how to keep group morale high, and she always maintained a positive attitude.

"Elora's right, we should split up," Spyro nodded. "Hunter, Bianca, you check by the portal to Aquarius Towers."

"Gotcha buddy," Hunter nodded, he and Bianca taking off.

"Sheila, you and Agent 9 check the upper levels," the young dragon instructed.

"I'm holding on to that blaster of yours," Sheila said quickly, swiping it out of Agent 9's paws.

"Hey!" Agent 9 frowned, trying to grab for it, but thankfully, the kangaroo would not let him have the blaster.

"You don't know how to play nice," Sheila chuckled as she ran to the assigned area.

"Elora, you see if anything is in Hurricos," Spyro said next. The portal to the hi-tech realm was very close by.

"I think I should check by the dungeons first," Elora said, when Spyro noticed something.

"What happened to your leg?" he asked.

"Oh, I slipped when I was getting the picnic blanket," Elora explained, "I had to put a bandage on it."

The group split up again.

…

"The dragon elders are so gonna kill me," Spyro frowned as he ran around the Summer Forest castle, "But why would any of my friends steal the egg?"

He soon came across a closed door. There was a button nearby that would open that door, but close the next door which led to a hidden room.

Spyro, remembering his previous time in Avalar, soon had a theory. He left the first door closed and jumped out on the windowsill and glided over to the next one, where the second door would be open.

"Perfect place for a thief to hide the egg…" he said confidently, only to have that theory shattered when he stepped inside the hidden room.

"Dang it," he frowned, seeing no trace of the egg he was assigned to guard. He then thought of other places to look as none of his friends had called, claiming they found it.

"Maybe I could check the front entrance," he realized.

….

As Spyro made his way back through the central garden where the picnic would have happened, Agent 9 suddenly stopped him.

"Wait Spyro!" the crazy monkey yelled, "Don't run with scissors!"

"Um…what does that have to do with anything, Agent 9?" Spyro asked, confused.

"Well, that's what the professor tells me, and I think an extension of that is don't run over scissors, like you were about to right now." Agent 9 was not the type to….make sense, though he honestly tried.

"Huh?" Spyro wondered, looking down on the ground to see that, indeed, a pair of scissors was lying on the ground.

The young purple dragon was confused by this, he was absolutely certain that those scissors weren't there before.

"I can't find anything either," Bianca informed, running up, "Though Hunter is now in Aquarius Towers."

"I have one last place I think the egg could be," Spyro said, deciding not to verbalize the fact that he knew the culprit had to be one of his friends. "I'll be back soon."

…

Spyro had dived back into the underwater tunnel that was the passageway in and out of the Summer Forest castle. Going for a visual exit, he leaped out onto the other side, where the grassy plains were.

It was then that Spyro saw what he had been hoping for: the missing egg!

"All right!" the dragon cheered, going over to see that it was still intact. Thankfully, it was.

But just as Spyro was about to head back inside the castle, something occurred to him: He still had no idea who the culprit was! But, he figured he could focus on that matter later.

"At least I know their trick," Spyro chuckled, "I'm sure the guilty party will confess now that I found the egg."

But as Spyro prepared to dive back in, he saw something that perplexed him. On the ground right next to the body of water that led to the passageway, the only trail of water was the one he made when he leapt out a minute ago!

"How does that work?" Spyro asked, confused. If one of his friends used the underwater tunnel, surely they would have left some trace of it on the grass nearby.

"There's probably something I'm just not seeing," Spyro figured. He looked up and saw windows high above the passageway. "Ah ha! They must have tossed the egg down here."

But Spyro knew that couldn't be the case. If someone tossed the egg from that height, it certainly would have shattered on impact. The egg was still in perfectly good condition.

"I must be going crazy," Spyro said to himself, "Or one of my friends is cleverer than I'm giving them credit for."

Looking up in another direction, he saw something odd. "That wasn't there the first time I was here," Spyro commented. Racing up several platforms, he found a peg nailed into the floor of where he had received a lesson on gliding before.

"There's another one," he noticed, flying to a platform where an orb had been hidden that he needed to collect on his first time in Avalar.

Spyro was beginning to get more clues. He noticed the two pegs and where the egg had been were all in a straight line, albeit if different elevations.

"But this could be just a coincidence," Spyro said to himself, still not being able to have a clear picture painted.

But when the dragon looked where the egg had been, he noticed two small holes in the ground right next to the egg.

"I'm getting an idea of what happened here," he grinned, "But I don't have proof."

Then, as if on cue, the proof came to him. A gentle breeze blew something right in Spyro's face. It was a tiny bit of wire, with a knot tied in the center.

Spyro quickly snatched the wire with his teeth. "I've got it," he grinned.

…..

"You found the egg!" Bianca smiled as Spyro returned. "Where was it?"

"Out in front of the castle," Spyro explained, "But, now that I found the egg, Bianca, I'm going to need your help with a project."

"Project?" Bianca asked, confused.

…..

Spyro had the rest of his friends gather outside near where the egg had been found.

"Why are we out here Spyro?" Sheila asked.

"I wanna show how Hunter got the egg out here," Spyro informed, making the group gasp!

"Me?" Hunter laughed, "How could I have done this?"

"It was a complicated trick, but I'm having Bianca set it up as we speak. The key to your plan was your crossbow, Hunter," Spryro revealed.

"How could his crossbow get an egg down here?" Agent 9 asked.

"It was tricky, I'll give you that. First, you nailed pegs in to those two platforms up above," Spyro explained, "Then, you took 4 arrows. You tied a good amount of wire between the ends of two of the arrows, just the right length so that when you shot one towards the peg, the other would not go along with it. Then you shot the other arrow down to the ground. You repeated the same process with the other arrow set and peg."

Bianca had followed Spryo's written instructions. She tied the wire and shot the arrows where the paper indicated.

"Viola, you have a working ropeway made out of wire," Spyro smirked, "Using that, you can gently roll the egg down to the grassy field."

Bianca had used a weighted ball to simulate the egg, and rolled it down, landing in the same area the egg did.

"Lastly Hunter, to hide the evidence, you used that scissors I found. You had two more arrows. You tied them to the existing wires in knots to the two existing wires. As you prepared to fire, you cut the wire at the exact moment. The arrow flew far away, taking the wires with it. You figured the wind would blow the arrows away."

"But where's your proof buddy?" Hunter asked, chuckling politely. "If anyone took my crossbow, they could've done the same thing." The cheetah said this as his last defense.

"Did you really bump into a door Hunter?" Spyro asked, "Because doing this trick would require some precise shots with that crossbow…..with has a recoil problem, as we saw before."

Hunter gasped, as Spyro presented the wire with the knot he had discovered earlier. "Found this. Guess you missed it buddy. But why did you make me panic like this?"

"I wanted to help Spyro," Hunter informed, "I overheard the dragon elders say that those kinds of eggs need lots of sunlight, but you weren't around to hear. And I know you don't really trust me when it comes to ideas involving these kinds of things."

"I would've believed you," Spyro replied, calming his cheetah friend down because he wanted to assure there were no hard feelings, "Just talk next time, ok?"

"I will…." Hunter nodded, "Anyone wanna go to the skate park?"

…

Back at the tournament, Skunk punched in his answer to the case. "All right! I got the right answer!" the kung fu apprentice cheered, when he saw Spyro smirking.

"I beat ya to it," the dragon informed. Skunk, in horror, looked up to see that he indeed had been eliminated out of the game.

"Dang!" Skunk complained as the Ferris Wheel they were on stopped back at the bottom and he and Spyro got off. The dragon used his gliding power to exit in style.

"You did your best, Skunk," Rabbit said, having grown enough not to mock his friend for losing.

But Skunk just sighed and kept walking.

…..

"I'm gonna show that dragon one day," Skunk vowed as he walked through an empty part of the resort's theme park, "I'm gonna….."

All of a sudden, Skunk was silent. Belladonna had shot him with the soul gun. His body was still perfectly physically healthy, yes, but he had now lost his soul. Skunk could just stand there, staring blankly into nothing. He was not dead, but he was gone, in a way.

"One down, several more on the way," Belladonna laughed wickedly. "So now it's time to collect…"


	4. The Phantom of Besaid

**The Toon Files Episode 69: The Phantom of Besaid**

Fox and Rabbit were having lunch at the Toon Town Resort's Wildcat Café. Wildcat had since branched out from just being a partner of Yubaba's, and now had people-cooking cafes in various worlds.

"What do you want?" Shere Khan the tiger asked, he, Wildcat, and the Grand Duke of Owls were all co-owners.

"I'll take carrot salad," Rabbit replied.

"Steak with BBQ sauce," Fox grinned.

"Coming right up," the Duke smirked, and several cries of help were soon heard, but ignored. Wildcat's….unique recipes were for whatever reason not considering illegal. (Most toons theorized that they were just so delicious it would be a crime in itself to stop such wonderful meals from being distributed.)

"So what's this Starlight Manor case?" Tammy asked, the staff of the detective tournament had gone to the café for their break.

"Oh, just some case that happened a few years ago," Percy replied.

"But I heard new evidence has come to light or something like that," Vivian commented.

"Maybe the client has a connection to that case, and wants to see it solved," Dom suggested.

"Or maybe he's just one of those conspiracy theory nutjobs who is never satisfied when they're presented with an answer," Percy laughed.

….

Watching the tournament from the grand stands, all the toons were who survivors of the Ghostface massacre were given free seats.

"Haku! Haku!" Odd Della Robbia cheered on. The scrawny Lyoko Warrior definitely had picked his team, if you will.

"Wow Odd," Yumi laughed, "All of a sudden, after we don't hear from you for a while, we suddenly see you more excited than ever."

Lily, Kate, and Garth were also watching the event. The wolf trio had become extremely close ever since Humphrey's tragic murder.

"This is cool," Lily smiled, "Right big sis?"

"Yeah," Kate nodded, "I just wish Humphrey could be here…"

"You need us to do anything for you Kate?" Garth asked.

"No," Kate replied, being able to cheer up faster now, "Those hot dogs we had for lunch were good."

"The weather here is perfect for a swim," Iago cooed to Thundra, "Don't let it rain."

"Of course, mi amor," the weather bird goddess smiled. The two birds had pretty much married since the Ghostface incident.

…..

Conan managed to solve Bagheera's case in a reasonable amount of time, leading him to win the match, and made Bagheera fall into the pool below.

"Sorry for getting you wet, panther," Conan called.

"Oh…don't mention it," Bagheera replied, getting up out of the water, clearly wanting to dry off. He went to find some towels, the pool water dripping off his fur. Call it cliché, but being a jungle cat, Bagheera was not too fond of water.

…

Meanwhile, the last few matches of round 1 were anyone's guess. Hadassah proved to be a better detective than she looked.

And Yuna and the Baron were in a close race, as the clever feline paid careful attention to the case the high summer had gone through.

"Well, let's see here…" the Baron noted, keeping close eye on the video.

…

**Besaid Island, Spira, 2004.**

Yuna had gone through a complicated life. As a summoner, she and her guardians were expected to defeat the terrible entity known as Sin and save Spira. However, over their quest, they learned that the world's religion (Yevon) was actually corrupt and the supposed method to defeat Sin was only temporary. However, they managed to destroy the true evil and save the world for good. Though Tidus, the love of Yuna's life who was from a spirit world of sorts disappeared after they beat the true evil, he was able to return after Yuna completed a new quest two years later.

Now, life was starting to calm down for the summoner and her friends. They were relaxing on Besaid Island, Yuna, Wakka, and Lulu's home island that was very small.

Tidus, Rikku, Kihmari the ronso, and Paine were also there, watching some kids play around.

"Roar!" a little girl pretended, "The phantom of Besaid's going to get you!" she said to her friends.

"Oh great," Tidus chuckled, "Now there's a ghost story here?"

"Ah, it's just a silly myth, ya," Wakka spoke up, "A few hundred years ago, some villagers went suddenly missing. Everyone started blaming it on some kind of spirit, though we all know that fiends are what caused it."

"Ghosts give me the creeps…" Rikku shivered. Despite being a genuinely tough fighter, mentioning the supernatural could get under Rikku's skin.

…..

In the old Besaid Temple where Yuna had started her pilgrimage, she was taking with Paine and Lulu.

"How's the baby been?" Yuna smiled to Lulu, who had married Wakka 2 years ago. They since had a child, and Wakka even named their boy after the Al Bhed word for "future".

"He's just fine," Lulu assured.

It was then the overheard 5 voices arguing. They were Ayumi, Sanda, Rar, Takku, and Evelyn.

"It's my turn on patrol tonight," Rar said to Evelyn. Evelyn, Rar, and Ayumi were siblings. Sanda and Takku were also sister and brother respectively.

"You can't beat any fiends," Evelyn laughed, wielding her sword. "You lost to one of those simple wolf fiends."

"She has a point," Sanda said, her weapon of choice was a spear. Takku was a fist fighter, while Rar and Ayumi both used black magic spells, much like Lulu.

"Please guys, not this crap again," Takku sighed.

Rar frowned. "I'm not a weakling, I can prove that to you…" he growled.

"Go ahead, make me smile," Evelyn grinned, stepping out of the temple.

"Siblings and friends really shouldn't be like that…" Paine said, though she was often happy, she rarely smiled.

….

Evening came. A bonfire was lit in the center of the village, and several people were eating meat.

"Hard to think our lives have calmed down," Tidus sighed.

Suddenly, the kids from earlier came rushing into the village, panicking.

"What is it?" Yuna asked, smiling, thinking they were still playing a game.

"The….the phantom's real!" one of the boys panted, "We were out playing….when we looked up…and…and…."

"What it is? Spit it out," Wakka encouraged.

"We found Ms. Evelyn dead in a tree!" the girl finished.

"What?" Rar and Ayumi gasped. Several of the villagers went to where the kids were pointing, Yuna and her friends included.

"My god…." Sanda gasped as the kids pointed to a tall tree.

Indeed, up in the branches, was the body of Evelyn. Despite the tree being several feet high, the body was seen instantly because several leafs had fallen to the ground.

"I'll check this out," Paine said, scaling the tree, and reaching the body. She quickly inspected Evelyn's pulse.

"How is she?" Rar asked, fearing the worst.

"She's dead," Paine confirmed, "From the looks of it, it was a stab in the chest."

….

All the residents of the island were in shock at what had just transpired.

"Murder? Here?" one of the village elders said, still trying to take everything in, "We've never had to deal with this type of crime."

"The murders we've seen were on a higher political scale…" Tidus thought as he was pacing back and forth. When all of a sudden, he took a fall.

Literally. There was a big hole a foot away from the tree that he dropped into. "Ack!" he groaned, as he landed on the hard dirt below.

"Oh man," Wakka said, running over to help his friend. The pit was about 7 feet deep.

"Who dug this?" Tidus grumbled, trying to jump out, but barely missing the edge each time.

"Kimarhi got you," the ronso said, catching Tidus' hand the next time he tried jumping, and was able to pull him out.

"How could this happen?" Ayumi asked.

"Maybe it wasn't any of the villagers," Rikku suggested, "Maybe she got attacked by some flying fiends. We know fiends like to go after spheres, right? Maybe Evelyn had one in her pocket or something like that."

Spheres had many uses in the world of Spira. They could be used to record video footage, and even provided people with special powers. In a way, they were also the history books of Spira's past.

….

All of the people went back to the village, Rar and Ayumi were still crying over their older sister's death. Sanda and Takku were equally upset.

Rikku noticed that Yuna looked bothered too, but in a different sort of botheration than the rest of the villagers.

"Something the matter Yuna?" Rikku asked.

"I think there's more to this incident that what appears to be at first glance," Yuna explained, "I don't think a fiend was the one who killed Evelyn."

Plenty of people gasped at that comment. "Lady Yuna, you can't be serious?" Rar asked, "You think one of us murdered my sister?"

"I'm just saying it's a possibility," Yuna replied, not wanting the situation to get more hectic than it already was.

Paine stepped up, siding with her friend, because she, Yuna, and Rikku were once a trio of Sphere Hunters named "The Gullwings." "It's more than a possibility," she smirked, "In fact, if anything, the one with the best chance of killing her is one of you four!"

Takku, Sanda, Rar, and Ayumi all looked offended. "On what grounds do you have to make that accusation?" Sanda asked.

"Don't play dumb," Paine retorted, "We all saw you arguing earlier today in the temple."

"But that's something that's not uncommon for us," Takku explained.

All of a sudden, a weird smirk appeared on Rar's face. "I can see where Ms. Paine is coming from," he spoke up.

"What do you mean, brother?" Ayumi asked, shocked.

"Big sister was always giving you two a hard time," Rar pointed to Takku and Sanda, "And from my observations, her words seemed to be cutting deep…"

"How dare you…" Sanda growled.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Rar smirked, "Sanda, Evelyn constantly berated your skills as a warrior. She said all your spear was good for was being a toothpick."

"You'd think I'd killer her over that?" Sanda retorted.

"And you Takku, she called you too inexperienced to even pick up a weapon…."

"You wanna get personal?" Takku snapped back, "You were the one she was mocking today! You have the best motive of all of us, if you ask me!"

Yuna stepped forward. "Enough arguing!" she called in an authorities voice.

…

The 4 suspects were all gathered in one tent where Yuna, Paine, and Wakka all interrogated them.

The suspects gave all their alibis for the time of death that Paine determined: Takku was at the beach, Sanda was in the temple, Ayumi near the old Besaid ruins, and Rar was on a boat doing a patrol around the island.

"Any witnesses to confirm that?" Paine questioned. The 4's answers were all basically the same: no one saw that, at least no one that would remember them well.

"If you excuse us," Ayumi said, trying to calm down, "We have a funeral and you have a sending to plan, Lady Yuna." The 4 all walked out of the temple.

As they did so, Yuna heard a metallic sound come from Rar, a crinkling sound coming from Sanda, and a weird whistling like sound coming from Takku.

…..

Yuna and her friends returned to the scene of the crime. "Takku's the only one of those 4 who would have enough power to lift the body up here," Rikku said, "I'd say he's our prime suspect."

"What I can't figure out was what that hole was doing there," Tidus said, "It had to be manmade."

"And there was that wood…" Kimarhi spoke up. Indeed, where Tidus had fell, he found a circular piece of wood, almost like a tile.

"Speaking of weird marks," Yuna said, walking up to the tree trunk, "It looks like something was attached to the tree at this spot. It's a small circular mark, like it came from a sphere."

"Maybe my idea about it being a fiend was right," Rikku suggested.

"No it wasn't, the phantom of Besaid killed her!" the little boy from earlier said.

"There is no phantom kids," Yuna assured, "Why do you say that?"

"Before we found the body, the wind was blowing and leaves were flying everywhere. That's the phantom's calling card. By the time we showed you the body, the wind had stopped. That's proof."

An idea suddenly hit Yuna. "Paine, go back up the tree, quickly!"

Paine nodded and did so, figuring that, now, she had to look for anything out of the ordinary. "I think I found something," she called.

"What was it?" Wakka asked.

"A bond of branches all attached together with some kind of sap," she called.

"Anything like a vine?" Yuna asked.

"Yeah, it looks like it," Paine nodded.

"One more thing…" Yuna said, running over to the hole Tidus had fell into. In the very center was a tiny marking. "I know who the murderer is…." She said ominously.

…

"What?" Ayumi gasped, "You've figured out who killed Evelyn?"

"We sure super-duper did," Rikku smirked eagerly.

"And the killer was you…..Sanda!" Yuna revealed.

"Me?" Sanda asked, shocked, "Why do you think that? I couldn't have lifted the body up!"

"Not on your own, yes," Yuna nodded, "But with the help of fiends, it was quite possible."

"Huh?" Everyone else gasped.

"She created a scale, if you will," Paine explained, "You placed Evelyn's body on a makeshift platform of branches, tied a rope to it, tossed it over the top and attached it to a platform you put over a hole you dug."

"That way," Yuna continued, "Once you placed a sphere on the tree, fiends stepped onto the platform and began to add more weight. The scale lifted the other platform up and eventually dumped Evelyn's body onto the tree."

"And then, to cover your tracks, you secretly ran to where the body was, killed the fiends with your spear, and also cut the rope, which actually was a vine," Tidus concluded.

"Clever story," Sanda said, "But where's your proof? You have none!" The sweat was gradually beginning to form on her forehead, but she did her best to keep it hidden.

"Two pieces actually," Yuna responded powerfully, "One was the sphere mark left in the hole in the ground from when you disposed of the fiends you involved in your trick. But most damning of all is what's in your shoe."

Sanda gasped, gaining looks from her brother and her friends. Paine reached down and pulled a leaf from her shoe.

"The kids were the ones who clued me in," Yuna concluded, "The wind was blowing when you set up your alibi device, causing the leafs to blow around, one right into your shoe. If your alibi was true, you should have been nowhere near a tree."

Sanda fell on her knees. "That…..that soulless…." She growled.

"Why's you kill our sister?" Rar demanded to know angrily.

"10 years ago, a summoner from the village I admired went out for her pilgrimage. She was one of my good friends, and she made it her goal in life. But she died shortly into her journey, and Evelyn had the audacity to make fun of her and call her weak!"

Rar and Ayumi gasped, they knew their sister had sensitivity issues, but they didn't think she'd sink that low….

"How could someone like that be allowed to live?" Sanda frowned, "She's worse than any fiend!" Those remarks ended up earning her a slap.

"No matter what one may have done," Yuna said, stepping over to Sanda, "Nothing justifies murder. You should know better…."

Sanda began to cry, pounding the ground with her fist. The Besaid authorities then took her in.

…..

Yuna and the Baron were in a race to solve the other's case first. But, it ended up being another victory for the former summoner.

"Sorry my friend," Yuna said, correctly entering the right answer to the magic cat's mystery, "But I'll be advancing to the next round."

"As you wish," the Baron vowed, unable to enter the correct answer to Yuna's case in time.

….

"Yee ha ha!" Monty grinned, correctly figuring out Abigail's case, the rather tragic one where Michelle had been the culprit.

"Darn it," the wood mouse frowned, hoping she'd make it further into the competition, "Good game, though."

"Likewise," Monty nodded.

….

But in the resort's infirmary, all was not well. Rabbit and Fox rushed in when they learned Skunk had been sent there.

"This is bizarre," the doctor said, "He's not responding in anyways, yet all my tests indicate he's still in perfect health…"

"Damn it!" Rabbit growled, hitting his head on the wall. "Please let this just be a sick joke…"

"I got a very bad feeling that that isn't the case…" Fox said softly, equally freaked out.


	5. Recipe For Disaster

**The Toon Files Episode 70: Recipe For Disaster**

The first round of the tournament was nearing its end, only a few of the cases were left to be solved.

Bartok was disappointed by the fact he had lost to Hadassah. "Honestly, losing in the first round?" the bad said to himself, "That will not fare well for my reviews." He was planning how to get back into the limelight when he began to take to the skies again/ As he went to fly over to the Wildcat Café, he did not notice a certain chameleon blending into the walls nearby….

…..

The Toon Town Gazette had sent their 3 cub reporters to get some interviews about the tournament of detectives. The trio consisted of Fievel, Sagwa, and Cream the rabbit.

"Tell us why you established this event," Sagwa asked the host, still masked as ever.

"Oh, I always like to know who the best of the best is," the host chuckled, hamming it up for any video cameras.

"Why did you choose the Toon Town Grand Hotel?" Cream asked, jotting notes.

"It's the perfect spot," the host replied, "Plus we can fir several guests here, and to be honest…just using a stadium would not provide many interesting visuals."

Just then, a door burst open. Someone came running out, dressed entirely in a ninja costume, and ran towards the host.

"Watch out!" Cream yelled, but it was too late. However, the mysterious person only grabbed the host's necklace, breaking the thin rope and grabbing the sword emblem.

"Get back here!" the host yelled. But after only a few seconds of running, the thief dropped the emblem.

"What was that about?" Sagwa asked, confused.

"Some stupid brat probably," the host replied, picking up his emblem. "I need to get a chain for this, seriously…."

…..

Abigail was talking with some of the other losers of the first round. Haku, who had never been one for competition, willingly lost his match and was drinking some sake at the Wildcat Café.

"I've never been in a place this big before," Abigail commented, looking around in awe. Despite being a mouse, she was deemed strong by the great chef.

"It's easy to determine that a place like this is not cheap," The Baron nodded, having ordered some fish.

"So, I'm still deemed strong?" Haku asked Wildcat, the two having worked together in the past.

"Yes, you are Haku," the chef replied.

"And I have the brains, where it really counts," Bagheera chuckled, he and Kairel stepping up to the other defeated detectives.

"Say, where's Bartok?" Abigail asked, "I've been meaning to say hi to him again….."

….

Meanwhile, the final bout of the first round was going on in the hotel's lobby. The two fat cats, Chowder and Garfield, had ordered food to keep them occupied while they watched the video of the other's case.

"More lasagna," Garfield called.

"Popcorn with hot dog chunks, meatballs, sugar, and lemon slices," Chowder ordered, liking his meal orders to be rather simple.

The two, wanting to spend any prize money on food, paid close attention….

….

**Marzipan City, 2007.**

The life of a chef's apprentice was an enjoyable one for young Chowder. Thanks to Mung Daal, Chowder had learned to cook as many recipes as times he had messed up a recipe. Which is to say, quite a few.

"Today's the big day Chowder," Mung grinned to his apprentice.

"What's so big about today?" Chowder asked.

"Today is the city's Soufflé Showdown," Mung explained, "If we can beat that blasted Ms. Endive, we get a free trip to the Hall of Great Chefs." He began to laugh like a mad scientist.

"Cool!" Chowder exclaimed.

"OOOOOHHHHHHH Choooooowwwwwddddeeeerrrr…." A girl's voice suddenly called.

"Oh no…." Chowder frowned. Running up to him was Panini, a rabbit who was Ms. Endive's apprentice, and had a huge, stalker-ish crush on Chowder.

"I heard you two are entered in the Soufflé showdown as well," Panini commented.

"We are indeed, " Mung nodded.

"Well, I just wanted to say hi to my boyfriend and tell you both that you're gonna lose!"

"I'm not your boyfriend!" Chowder desperately yelled, getting tired of having a stalker.

"I also wanted to show you this," Panini said, holding up a remote control, "I'm learning how to make and use electronics." She pressed a button, causing water to spray suddenly from a hose. "I'm still working on that…." She admitted.

…

A few hours later, the contest was about to begin. Mung Dall's wife Truffles (Who often made jokes at his expense) and Mung's rock assistant Schnitzel (who could only speak in the words radda radda) were also attending.

"I don't see the point in getting so fancily dressed if you are just going to be defeated Mung," Endive taunted, "Though I will admire your determination."

"Enddddivvvveeeeee….." Mung said ominously.

"Wwwwhhhhhhyyyy aaaaarrreeee weeeeeee taaaalllkkiinnnhh liikkkkeeeee ttthhiisssss?" Chowder asked.

"This day's just gonna suck, right?" Truffles asked Schnitzel. The chef's wife was pretty aware of how often things went wrong for her husband.

"Radda radda," the assistant nodded.

….

Mung and Chowder had taken extra special care to make sure that their soufflé had no errors. They stood by the countertop all day long, never taking both of their eyes off their work. They had been the victims of sabotage in competitions beforehand, so they did not want to take any risks.

They mixed all the ingredients together carefully, they measured all the correct increments, they made sure the oven was at just the right temperature, and gave it all the right garnishes.

"This is my….I mean, our moment Chowder," Mung grinned widely at he wheeled out their soufflé on a cart.

"Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" Chowder grinned, hopping up and down and clapping his paws.

"Today, I present to you all," Mung called to the crowd, "My…I mean OUR masterpiece, the super Soufflé of sudden serious deliciousness, or the SSSSD…." He prepared to pull off the lid, when suddenly…..

KABLOOIE!

Bits of the soufflé and the lid of the dish were sent flying. Smoke was filling up the immediate area. An explosion had occurred!

"That…..wasn't what I was intending," Mung said, bits of dough dripping off his nose.

"Yum, this tastes great Mung," Chowder complimented, licking it off his own face.

Endive only laughed hysterically.

…..

Needless to say, Chowder and Mung didn't win because of the little bombing incident.

"What's wrong Mung?" Endive smirked, "You've lost so many times, I would've thought you would have developed an immunity to it by now." She never resisted the chance to flaunt her victories over Mung.

"You….." Mung growled with a vengeance, "You did this, didn't you?"

Endive chuckled, as did Panini. "How could I have possibly done that?" she pointed out, "I was never at your pathetic shop all day, I was busy preparing my far superior soufflé."

"Ah, cheer up Mung," Chowder smiled, trying to raise his master's spirits, "There's always next year…"

"You tell me that every year Chowder!" Mung exploded, "And that time never comes! But…" he said, starting to whisper to his apprentice, "There's something you can do for me."

"Do what?" Chowder asked, wanting to help.

"Chowder, I want you to be a detective," Mung said.

"A defective?" Chowder asked, mishearing the words, "But I'm not broken!"

"No, a detective," Mung whispered angrily, "I'm willing to bet Ms. Endive planted that bomb in my soufflé, and if you can find evidence that she did so, maybe that could disqualify her from the prize."

"You can count on me, Mung," Chowder nodded obediently.

….

Back at the Toon Town Resort, nightfall was nearing.

Rabbit and Fox had stayed by Skunk's side. "What is going on with him?" Fox asked, never experiencing an instance like this before, "He's healthy….yet, it's like he's lifeless." She placed her paw on Skunk's chest. She could feel his heartbeat, but there was virtually no response.

"Way to go on your win, Twilight!" Fluttershy and Spike complimented their friend as they were searching for the room that had been reserved for them.

"I couldn't have done it without you supporting me," Twilight smiled, "Though it's just too bad Pinkie and the others couldn't make it."

"Yeah," Spike nodded, "But you'd be surprised how busy someponies schedules can get."

As the trio walked along, Fluttershy had noticed something in the Resort's gift shop display. When she saw what this item was, she knew it would make a perfect present for Twilight. But she managed to say nothing as the group kept moving along back up to their room.

…..

Back in the Chowder Vs. Garfield detective duel, much of the crowd had gotten tired of how the two cats took several meal breaks and only spent a few minutes at a time watching the other's case.

"Will you two get on with it already?" a bear in the crowd cried.

"Fine…." Both of the players sighed, annoyed.

…..

In Chowder's mystery, he had run back to Mung and Truffles' food shop. "Better change into my detective disguise," he told himself. His detective disguise was the same as his usual attire, only brown instead of purple and it came with a monocle.

"But there is something that bothers me," the fat cat told himself, "Me and Mung were busy on that soufflé the whole time! How could anyone have planted a bomb inside it, we never took our eyes off of it."

Truffles had come back by herself, as Schnitzel was busy with a vain attempt to get Mung to stop crying.

"Oy!" she moaned, "You would think as they get older, they become less like babies, but no….."

"Hi Truffles," Chowder waved optimistically, "Did Mung have any clues he wanted to show me."

"Just this," Truffles shrugged, tossing the apprentice a small, slightly curved piece of metal, "He said this must've been from the bomb."

Chowder looked over the piece carefully. "Yes…" he nodded, "This is definitely a very clue-y clue."

"I'm just going to be going to bed now," Mung's wife said, not wanting to get caught up in the shenanigans this time around."

Chowder, for the first part of his investigation, began looking around the kitchen for any possible secret entrance/exit they he may have not known about.

"The culprit may be someone who's very very tiny…." He said to himself, moving his eyes over every surmountable surface. But, nothing like ever turned up.

"Maybe there's a window!" Chowder figured. He looked up, hoping to have his theory proven correct, but he was only to receive another shattered theory.

"Darn it," he complained, devouring a cake he had taken out of the refrigerator, "Guess there's nothing here for me to find…"

Chowder than figured that since no results were turning up in the kitchen, he should head back to the Soufflé Showdown, where the official award ceremony had still yet to start.

…

Chowder ran back to the contest grounds as fast as his feet could take him. Just as he approached them, he felt himself kick something tiny on the ground.

"Huh," he commented, picking up the object, "Someone dropped a key. I wonder what it's for."

"Well Chowder," Mung said, getting out of his crying fit, "Did you find any answers? Did you get any proof that Endive cheated?"

"Not yet Mung," Chowder nodded, when he suddenly felt two paws wrap around him in a hug.

"Oh Chowder…" Panini blushed romantically, "It was so brave of you to shield me from the blast."

"I didn't do that," Chowder reminded, "We were both near the soufflé and you used me as a shield!"

"But you made a good shield," Panini noted. Chowder quickly ran in another direction.

He noticed the cart that Mung had brought the explosive dish out on was still mostly intact. "Maybe there's a clue here!"

Searching carefully under the tarp, Chowder noticed something odd. He picked at it with his paws until he could get it off.

"This is weird…." Chowder said to himself, "Is this duct tape?"

He had to pull really hard to get it off his paws, when he then saw some of the Soufflé Showdown's staff were discussing something.

"That was the second incident we had today," one of the creatures said.

"Second?" Chowder asked himself, confused, "What was the first?"

"Someone stole on of our speakers," the staff member replied, overhearing the self-talk, "It was really inconvenient."

"Speaker, eh?" Chowder asked, "Did you ever get it back?"

"Yeah, we did, kid," the showdown official nodded, "Though, when we got it back, the only thing we noticed was different was that the wiring had been tampered with, and there had been some duct tape attached to it."

It was then that a theory was entering Chowder's head. Sure, though his mind was usually focused on just food, he was beginning to have an idea of who the culprit was. It all made sense now: How the culprit got the bomb into the pasty, the true meaning of that piece of metal, and what the proof that would give away the culprit was.

….

"Mung! Mung!" Chowder rapidly repeatedly, running over to the chef, "I've figured it all out!"

"You did?" Mung smiled, relieved, "Alright, let's go expose Ms. Endive for the cheater she is!"

"Actually…." Chowder started to say, but Mung had already headed for the Awards Platform.

Endive was giving her victory speech, "I'd like to thank the little people….which is everyone but me," she smirked.

"Hold it right there, Endive!" Mung called, "My apprentice has something he wants everyone to hear."

Everyone turned to Chowder, including Endive, who was frowning. "That's right," Chowder nodded, "I wanted to tell everyone who was behind the bombing."

"Indeed you do," Mung smirked, preparing for triumph, "And tell them who's the culprit."

"It was Panini," Chowder said.

"That's right!" Mung said, not hearing the part that was about the fact the culprit wasn't who he was hoping it to be. "Wait….wha?"

Everyone gasped, even Endive. "Are you crazy Chowder?" Panini asked, "How could I, or anyone for that matter, plant a bomb in the soufflé of yours?"

"That's what had me confused, like a jigsaw puzzle," Chowder explained, "But I soon realized there was never a bomb inside the soufflé at all. The explosion we heard was an artificial one….more specifically, just the sound of one!"

"Whatever do you mean, boyfriend?" Panini asked, nervously.

"Firstly, I'm not your boyfriend! And secondly, you utilized a speaker you stole from the competition. You rigged it to play the sound effect of an explosion. And as we all know, loud noises destroy soufflés. The speaker was taped until our cart, where I found traces of tape to the bottom, and those guys said they found tape on the missing speaker when it appeared again."

"But Chowder, we all saw the smoke, there had to be an actual explosion," Mung pointed out.

"That's how we were tricked," Chowder continued, "Panini had a smoke grenade prepared. Knowing when the sound effect would go off, she threw the grenade in the right direction so it would explode at the same time as the sonic boom. And that key I found on the ground earlier….it was the pin to the grenade I actuality."

"But where's your proof?" Panini said, impressed by Chowder's deduction.

"It's in your pocket Panini," Chowder pointed. Panini, realizing she was cornered, reached into her pocket and pulled out the remote.

"When I remembered you said you were learning electronics, I realized you were the only one who could have rigged up everything," Chowder explained, "But why did you do this?"

"Oh Chowder," Panini replied, getting over-dramatic, "I just couldn't take the thought of losing you, my love! If you won this contest, you'd never see me again!"

"Um…Panini," Chowder pointed out, "Even if we won the contest, the vacation prize would mean we'd only be gone for a week."

"That's like an eternity for me, my love," Panini replied, fainting dramatically.

"I'm not your love!" Chowder panicked, running off. This happened far more frequently than Chowder wished for.

…..

The battle of the fat cats finally concluded with Garfield figuring out Chowder's case first, eliminating the apprentice chef from the competition.

"Boring…" Garfield yawned, "Where's the lasagna?" The two gave a minor nod of respect to each other, and went off on their separate ways. Both being felines with overeating habits, there was a layer of understanding between them.

The 8 detectives advancing to the next round were Conan, Francis, Garfield, Yuna, Twilight Sparkle, Monty, Spyro, and Hadassah.

…

"Maybe Skunk just went into some kind of mental condition because he lost the match," Fox suggested to Rabbit.

"I really hope you're right," Rabbit replied to his wife, when they suddenly saw Abigail, the baron, Haku, Kairel, and Bagheera come running up, all looking concerned.

"This is the infirmary, right?" Kairel asked.

"Yeah, what's the matter?" Fox responded.

"We found my friend Bartok….something's wrong with him," Abigail explained. Haku held out his hands, revealing Bartok lying perfectly still, his heart still beating, but he was just staring blankly….


	6. A Life on the Line

**The Toon Files Episode 71: A Life on the Line**

"Another one?" Rabbit frowned, as Bartok was placed gently on to one of the infirmary beds. The bat magician lied in a peaceful yet creepy because of the circumstances position.

"We don't even know what's happening with them," Bagheera said, "And I've never even seen anything like this back in my jungle, either."

Haku held his hand over both Skunk and Bartok. The spirit of the Kohaku River had a theory about what had happened to these two, but he was really hoping it wasn't true.

"What are you doing Haku?" Kairel asked. The lioness, river spirit, panther, woodmouse, and magical cat had formed a sort of friendship/team.

"It's just as I feared," Haku replied, "They no longer have their souls."

"What?" everyone else yelled, either in shock, disbelief, or both.

"How can….how can somebody lose their soul?" Abigail asked, having a hard time accepting what Haku was telling them.

"It's not that hard of a stretch, I'll admit," the Baron spoke up, "After all, I am a Creation, I wasn't just born," the former cat statue explained, "The concept of having one's soul taken is something I know to be possible, but how whoever is doing this is doing it is anyone's guess."

…

For the other detectives, they would not learn about this quite yet. The host had told them to gather in the grand lobby of the hotel, as the auditorium had to suddenly be put under repairs for some reason.

"This is just boring," Hadassah complained, "I really need to call that one mall security lady again, I still haven't found my Jamba Juice…." Ms. Gubberman wasn't exactly the most self-aware person in Toon Town, or her hometown of Yankerville for that matter.

"You said it sister," Tammy nodded, the host's 4 staff members were walking past. "Anyone grab a bite to eat?" For the second round, each of the 4 had been given special shoes with the first letter of their names sewn on the side.

"I did," Percy replied, pulling some snacks out of his pouch, "Anyone want any gummy bears? Tammy?" he said that last part with a smirk.

"Very funny," Tammy replied, being a bear herself.

"The boss man gave us our to-do lists," Dom said, "We belter follow them."

"What," Conan said, going up to the 4, "Even you don't know who the host is?"

"Beats me," Vivian replied.

"We just received e-mails telling us we got the jobs," Dom explained, the feline not finding this to be odd, "And I really needed the money."

"Plus, it would give us all something to do," Percy added, the kangaroo doing a few exercise hops.

"Ok…" Conan said as the host appeared before the detectives again.

…

"The lucky eight of you have made it to the Quarter Finals!" the host grinned, "And thus, one step closer to solving the mystery of Starlight Manor." He was giving the hosts of Cash Cab, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Wipeout a run for their money.

"Something tells me that the mystery of that manor isn't a tale filled with sunshine and joy…" Francis joked to Yuna.

"Anyways, the matches for the second round have been randomly selected, as well as the arenas where the detective duels will be held."

The Quarter Finals stood as such:

Match 9: Francis Vs. Yuna (Near the top of the resort's highest waterslide.)

Match 10: Hadassah Vs. Conan (On the park's monorail.)

Match 11: Twilight Sparkle Vs. Spyro (In the hotel's longest hallway.)

Match 12: Monty Vs. Garfield (In the resort's mini-theater.)

"Let the games continue," the host smiled, walking off stage.

….

The Final Eight each went to their respective detective arenas. "I really don't see the point with all these fancy locations," Spyro said.

"We can blame this on ratings," Twilight replied, "I'm sure the host wants as much viewship as possible."

On the monorail which provided resort guests with an easy ride between the hotel and theme park, Conan and Hadassah were ready to solve the other's case.

"Good luck kid," Hadassah called, even if most of her positive moments were usually sarcasm-filled.

"You'll be the one who'll need it," Conan smirked silently as the video of Hadassah's case began.

…

**Yankerville, Nevada, 2003.**

Yankerville was filled with several crazy people. Because they were in the state of Nevada, crank calls were more or less legal. People of various backgrounds (and levels of sanity) made various calls over the years that defied logic, from hunting for missing Jamba Juices, to being trapped in fold-up beds, to getting a locksmith to help one break into a store's vault.

But on one particular day, Hadassah had decided to check in at the Yankerville Plaza Hotel.

"One room," she said to the concierge.

"Coming right up madam," the front desk clerk replied, pulling out a key.

Arriving shortly after were 4 more people. One was Bobby Fletcher, a man who had a belching problem and may or may not be a drug addict.

"Hurry up, just one room," he asked.

Next up was Gladys Murphy, a rather loud-mouthed woman. "I want a room, and it better have a good view," she said.

"Right away," the concierge replied.

The third one to arrive was Ken, a man with a few, rather specific, obsessions….

"Just one room please," he said politely.

"Yes sir, you'll have room 313," the front desk clerk nodded. That made Ken frown.

"Are you sure 312 or 314 aren't available?" Ken asked, "I don't do odd numbers…."

"No sir," the clerk replied.

"Can you just make sure?" Ken asked hopefully, not giving up.

The last person to arrive was Niles Standish, one of the wealthiest men in all of Yankerville. "What are your rates for a room in the Royal Suites for one night?" he asked.

"$130 a night," the concierge explained.

"Could you double that?" Niles asked, always wanting to unnecessarily overspend his money.

Hadassah thought nothing of the other 4, and took the elevator to the floor where her room was located.

Little did she know, things were about to get serious pretty quickly (Even if she herself would not find it that serious)….

…..

The night began calm enough; Hadassah had watched some Oprah on her room's TV set (she was even a former employee of O! Magazine), then fell asleep.

However, around 1 in the morning, everything took a shocking and noisy turn.

"Ugh…." Hadassah groaned, waking up from her sleep due to the sound of sirens outside the hotel, "What's going on?"

She looked out the window to see that the source of the sirens was various police cars. "Hey," she said, suddenly feeling better, "Maybe they found my Jamba Juice and wanted to return it to me in person."

However, that proved not to be the case when Hadassah heard a knock on her door. "Mam, open up!" called one of the cops.

"Just hold your horses," Hadassah said rather gleefully, going over and opening the door. "How can I be of assistance, officer?"

"There's been a murder, Ms. Gubberman," the police woman explained, "a 52-year old male named Richard Birchum. He was stabbed in the chest."

"He's dead?" Hadassah asked.

"Yes man," the officer replied.

"No crap," Hadassah said, mildly surprised, "But what does any of this have to do with me?" she asked, looking like she wasn't fully concerned.

"According to the hotel's list of guests," the cop explained, "You and 4 other people checked in around the same time as the victim, and our immediate investigation reveals details that have been raising some eyebrows."

"Again, what does this have to do with me?" Hadassah asked, not seeming interested or even upset that a man's life had been taken. "I don't even wear fake eyelashes, why should your eyebrows matter?"

"Well, there's the small fact that…..the victim's room is just down the hall from yours," the officer pointed out.

"Really?" Hadassah asked, surprised. It was then that she saw something that truly bothered her. "Lady, what did you do with your hair?" she criticized, rather rudely.

"Excuse me?" the officer frowned.

"That does not go with that hat," Hadassah remarked, beginning to ruffle the cop's hair. This action, like Newton would say, triggered a reaction.

As Hadassah was taken out into the hotel hallway, she noticed a small stain on the floor but she couldn't make out what it was.

…..

Another cop was interrogating Bobby when the girl cop came walking up, with Hadassah handcuffed to her. "You aren't going anywhere," the officer frowned, getting too fed up with Hadassah's intrusiveness.

"You were talking with the victim on the phone, according to our tracing the hotel's records, just seconds before the time of death," the cop said to Bobby.

"Yeah, what about it?" Bobby nodded, sipping from his soda hat.

"Are you sure you weren't using that to your advantage to kill the victim when he had his guard down?"

"I was using the hotel phone," Bobby reminded, "It's a cord phone. I couldn't have gone more than 5 feet out of this room with it. I never even went near the guy's room. Besides, if I ran, I get too sweaty."

"What's that?" Haddassah asked, looking in Bobby's travel bag.

"An Mp3 player and a walkie talkie," Bobby explained, "I use it to talk with my buds, and my boy Ricky has the other back at his place."

"We'll contact you later if we find anything else Mr. Fletcher," the male cop said to Bobby.

"Whatever," Bobby burped rather loudly.

….

Gladys was next on the list of suspects. Her room was located just one floor below Birchum's, next to the stairwell between the floors. Bobby's room had been two stories higher, and was at the opposite end of the hallway.

"Really?" Gladys asked, offended, "You're suspecting me of murder?"

"That's not what we said mam," one of the cops replied, "We just wanted to ask you some questions that may help us in solving the crime."

"Well let me tell you this," Gladys said, starting to sound like she was some kind of sport coach, "When you find out who the killer is, let me be the first to know, cause I will kick his ass to the point he will wish he wasn't born!"

"I believe we can handle that mam," one of the cops assured.

Once again, Hadassah, a person who could not keep to herself, peaked in Gladys's bag.

"Perfume eh," she said to herself, looking through the various brands. "I thought they stopped selling this in 2001."

"Watch it!" Gladys frowned. At the time of the crime, Gladys had made a room service call which lasted for a few minutes due to a delay by the staff.

"That was an odd time to make a call," the male cop noted.

"Hey, I get midnight Sprite cravings, is there something wrong with that?" Gladys asked.

"No, nothing at all…"

…..

The police, with Hadassah in tow, knocked on Ken's door next.

"How many of you are there?" Ken called.

"3," the male cop replied.

"Can you either add or subtract one person?" Ken replied, "That's really important to me."

The male cop sighed and went ahead to find the last suspect, Miles.

"Did you make any contact with the victim before the incident?" the female cop asked Ken.

"No, I can't recall that I did," Ken replied, repeatedly tapping on the wall.

"What is with this lavender?" Hadassah moaned, looking at the color of the room's wallpaper.

"You have the right to remain silent, Ms. Gubberman," the officer sighed.

"Anything else I can do?" Ken asked. He kept his rhythmic tapping up, refusing to break his own pattern.

"No, not at the moment," the female officer replied, "But we'll get back to you if anything comes up."

"Before you go," Ken requested, "Can you say the words, "pound key?"

The officer said nothing, getting tired of all the insane people she had dealt with already.

…..

Lastly, Niles was in his royal suite on the highest floor of the Yankerville Plaza Hotel, being interrogated.

"I have to say, of all the crime scenes I've been present at, this one does come with the finest accommodations."

"Sir, we ask you to follow our procedures or you'll be charged with obstructing justice and you could be fined a thousand dollars," the cop replied.

"Could you double that fine for me?" Niles asked.

"Maybe…." The cop sighed as Hadassah and the other officer entered.

"Ken wasn't able to provide any useful information," she explained to her partner.

"As for Mr. Standish here," the male cop informed, "He claims he was always up on this floor since he got the key to his room, and he says the other people in royal suites can testify to him watching Die Hard with the volume on max."

"All our suspects have solid alibis, with the exception of Ken," the girl officer noted.

Hadassah noticed a big feast worth of food and a bottle of seltzer on a table. "That's a lot of chow," Hadassah noted, "Did you have a date or something?"

Niles chuckled at that statement, "No, it's all for me. Just because you have enough for more than 1 person doesn't mean you'll share."

"His alibi checks out," the male cop said, "We aren't getting anywhere with this…."

"I'm afraid the killer's gonna get away…." The cop handcuffed to Hadassah sighed.

…

Hadassah had been taken back to her room, and the handcuffs were unlocked. "You may go," the officer informed her. He was also happy to be rid of her.

But it was at that moment that Hadassah walked over to the scene of the crime. "Looks like there was a struggle, eh?"

"That's correct, now head back to your room," the female officer informed.

Then Hadassah noticed something fuzzy lying on the ground. "Is this a wristband?" she asked, sniffing it. But the smell she received made her eyes widen. She went back out into the hall and smelled the stain on the floor from before, it was a rather sweet scent.

"What is it?" the cops sighed.

"Here me out on this, I think I know who the murderer is!" Hadassah announced. She was giggling in a slightly crazed tone.

….

The cops knocked on Bobby's door again. "Yeah?" he asked, opening the door.

"You were the one who killed Birchum, weren't you?" Hadassaj accused very suddenly.

"Um…what the hell?" Bobby asked, having been caught off guard.

"She has some evidence she wants to present, Mr. Fletcher," the female cop explained.

"You used a trick to establish an alibi," Hadassah began to explain, "And the key to your plan was your walkie talkies. You have both on you, don't you? You called Birchum's number using the hotel phone, that part was true. But then you set one talkie by the phone, and held the other in your hand while you ran to his room, intending to commit murder."

"That does make sense," the male officer nodded.

"And when you got to his room, you knew the door would be unlocked, and thus, by ending the call right before you entered, you established the perfect alibi," Hadassah continued to explain.

"Ok, I think someone's been watching too much CSI," Bobby replied, "Where's your proof I did any of this?"

"You left two pieces of proof behind," Hadassah retorted, "One is the stain in the hallway. It gave off a sweet aroma….like that stupid soda cap you wear, seriously, does anyone still sell that? And two, and most importantly…" Hadassah presented what she found at the scene of the crime. "This is a sweat band. You told us yourself, running makes you sweaty, so when you went to the victim's room, your wore this to void leaving behind a trail of sweat, but I guess it got pulled off in the struggle…."

Bobby then tried to make a run for it, but the cops were able to apprehend him. It took only a simple grabbing of his drinking hat to yank the culprit to the ground.

"Perfect yank," the cop grinned proudly.

…..

Turns out, Birchum had discovered some of Bobby's doings involving drugs and Bobby committed the murder to keep him quiet.

"You really impressed us, Ms. Gubberman," the female officer complimented, "We had no idea you had it in you."

"Ah, don't mention it," Hadassah smiled, very chummily, "Though, I have one favor to ask."

"You name it," the cops replied.

"Ok, you see, like 2 weeks ago, in the mall, I lost my Jamba Juice which I got for free because of a coupon, and I was really hoping one of you could put out an All-Points Bulletin on it…."

The cops sighed, shaking their heads, but laughing a bit nonetheless.

"Hey," Hadassah frowned, hating being laughed off, "I'm being dead serious here…"

….

"Figured it out, one truth prevails!" Conan smirked, being able to type the solution before Hadassah could figure out his case, thus winning him the match. Hadassah had been eliminated from the tournament. Conan would be going to the semi-finals.

"Drat," Hadassah frowned, "But I guess it's not a total loss. I have some calls I have to make…"

As Conan was walking to the café to get some lunch, he noticed Francis, grinning contently.

"You win your match too?" the teen in a kid's body asked the cat.

"Indeed I did," Francis nodded, "Though Lady Yuna was a challenging opponent indeed." He was chewing on a mice he had received at Wildcat's for lunch/

….

At this time, Spike and Fluttershy knew this was their chance to obtain the gift they wanted to get for Twilight. They raced to the Toon Town Grand Resort's gift shop.

"We have to be quick before Twilight wins her match," Spike said, the dragon outrunning the pony for now.

"And I know just what she'll find memorable," Fluttershy smiled friendly, she had all the money she would need for the gift, when she suddenly felt something hit her. Suddenly, she didn't feel like moving anymore.

"Um, Fluttershy, why'd you stop?" Spike asked, turning around to see Fluttershy standing still, her eyes wide opened but unmoving.

"What happened?" Spike gulped, waving his claws in front of Fluttershy, but alas, no reply. "I..I need to go tell Twilight…"

It was at that moment another one of the magic bullets hit Spike, causing him to enter the same catatonic state. A certain rat stepped out of the shadows, looking rather pleased at his accomplishment.

"Two birds, one stone," Ratigan chuckled, having just claimed two more souls for his mysterious employer…


	7. The Texts That Bind

**The Toon Files Episode 72: The Texts That Bind**

Conan, Francis, and even Yuna (who held no grudges towards the cat over her loss) were all enjoying a lunch at the resort's Wildcat Café when Vivian, Tammy, and Dom all came walking up to them.

"Can you help us please?" Vivian asked. She and the others were panting from all their running.

"With what?" Yuna replied to the contest's staff.

"It's our kangaroo friend, Percy," Dom explained, "He's been missing for an hour now, and he won't pick up our calls. Can you help us find him?"

Conan looked down at his watch (which doubled as a stun gun) and said "I think we can lend you a hand….or paw in Francis's case, I guess."

"Thank you," Tammy nodded appreciatively.

….

Rabbit, Fox, Kairel, Bagheera, Abigail, Haku, and the Baron were all gathered in Rabbit and Fox's suite at the resort, planning their next move.

"Why would somebody be stealing souls?" Abigail asked, "What are they seeking to gain from this?"

"Could be a variety of reasons," Haku replied, "Maybe the culprit likes to eat souls but not the flesh, I've seen that happen back at Yubaba's, or maybe they're using souls to power up some ancient evil…."

"Well, whatever the motivation is," Fox said, "We're going to need to be prepared. Unlike regular weapons, if whoever is behind this gets one hit in, our souls will be trapped."

"And we'll need to find the rat who's behind this," the Baron nodded, not knowing the irony in his choice in words.

"Hopefully whoever are behind this left some clues," Bagheera commented.

"Agreed," Kairel nodded, "But, I have to say, if we do find clues, how do we know that they aren't meant to be a trap? This doesn't seem like the kind of crime where whoever is doing this is just messing around."

"We'll just have to see what happens…." Haku replied.

…

The final two matches of the quarter finals were still going on at this moment.

In the hallway where Twilight and Spyro were, the pony and dragon were in the middle of competitive video watching.

"I can do this, I can do this," Spyro said, watching Twilight's mystery.

Twilight was enjoying watching Spyro's case, not realizing what had just happened to her friends.

…

**Ponyville, Equestria, 2011.**

In the (mostly, this constantly changes) peaceful village of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of some research. In a few weeks, a popular tradition called Nightmare Night would be happening.

Twilight was also somepony who liked accuracy, so she was looking through every history book possible to get every detail possible accurate. She did not want to have even a single strand of fur braided in the wrong direction.

"There's only 14 strands of white fur, not 15…" Twilight noted, making some changes in what she had written down.

"Do you think you may be getting a little obsessed Twilight?" Spike asked, hearing a knock on the door.

"There's no such thing as too obsessed," Twilight replied, seeing her 5 friends at the door.

Besides Fluttershy, there was also Rainbow Dash, the athletic one of the 6, Pinkie Pie, the baker and comedic relief, Rarity, the fashion designer who was very kind (and occasionally dramatic), and Applejack, the one who worked in the farming/selling business.

"You haven't come out of your house for a while Twilight," Applejack said, looking concerned for her friend.

"Oh, don't worry about me girls," Twilight said s everyone stepped inside, Rainbow Dash was using a yo-yo, while Pinkie was shuffling around the floor.

"It's too beautiful of a day to be inside," Pinkie grinned, twitching a bit.

"I just have a few more books to look over, then I'll join you," Twilight said to her friends.

"Speaking of books," Rarity remembered, "Did you get those wool books cover I sent you last week?"

"Yeah, I did," Twilight nodded, "I got use out of them, thanks Rarity."

"Don't mention It," Rarity smiled.

"Anyone in the mood for cake?" Pinkie asked eagerly. Sweets were Pinkie's specialty, just look at her last name.

"Didn't we have lunch just an hour ago?" Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"There's always room for desert!" Pinkie giggled.

"Try to join us soon Twilight," Fluttershy encouraged, trying to make a compromise between Twilight's wishes and her friends'.

"Don't worry, I will," Twilight promised, as she went into her privte study to avoid getting distracted by any other notices.

But what she didn't realize was that as the other 5 ponies left, 1 turned back towards Twilight's home with a planning look in her eye…..

….

A few hours later, Twilight had finally finished all the research she needed for her costume.

"All done," she smiled, relieved, when she noticed the clock. "Look at the time," she gasped, seeing it was already 6 P.M. "I hope everyone else hasn't gone home already."

Twilight's plan was simple: She would just put her last book back on the shelf, then join her friends. But when she opened the door to her mini-library, she saw something that made her gasp: Her book shelves were entirely empty!

"WWWWHHAAAAAAAAA!" Twilight shrieked. Every last book, every single page, every miniscule word, was missing.

Spike came running in, the young dragon was busy looking at pictures of gems, to see the crime that had just transpired. "Whoa…." He awed.

"This can't be…this can't be….this can't be happening!" Twilight panicked, grabbing a paper bag to help with her hyperventilation.

"Just calm down Twilight," Spike tried to comfort, "I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation for all of this."

Twilight looked at the window in the library. "Were you out in the living room all day Spike?" she asked.

"Yeah, I was," Spike nodded, "Why do you ask?"

Twilight's panicking turned into a concerned expression, "Then whoever stole the books had to be someone who used this window. And the only ones who know that that window goes to my books are my friends…."

"Looks like we got a mystery on our claws and hoofs," Spike said, "Give me a second." He quickly dove into a closet. When he emerged, he was wearing a tweed hat.

"Let's go," Twilight smirked.

….

Rarity was at her home, working on designs for Fluttershy's upcoming birthday party dresses.

"What happened with you Twilight?" Rarity asked, "I heard a scream a few minutes ago."

"All the books in her library went missing," Spike explained.

"Really?" Rarity asked, surprised, "Sorry about that… Did they take the wool covers too?"

"No worries Rarity," Twilight replied, "And yes, unfortunately, whoever did this did that also." She was doing her best not to imply the fact that she suspected one of her friends to be the thief.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Rarity asked as she sewed the next outfit for the upcoming party.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," Twlight fake smiled in reply, "Though, I just wanted to know…" she continued rather slyly, "While I was reading, what did I miss out on?"

Rarity thought back, "Not much," she admitted, "After we left your house, we helped Applejack gather apples, then we all went off to do separate things."

"So, none of you were really watching the others, right?" Twilight asked, letting her cover slip somewhat.

"Wht are you implying?" Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh nothing," Twilight quickly replied, trotting away, with Spike following shortly after in tow.

…

Pinkie Pie was working on her latest (and in her words, greatest) treat: the strawberry gummy cake.

"Hi Twilight, Hi Spike," Pinkie smiled widely, "Can you help me with this?"

"Sure," Spike nodded, going over to open the oven door, though he received a small shock when he did so.

"Wanna try a bite?" Pinkie grinned, offering her friends a slice of cake.

"Sure," Twilight replied, taking a taste. Indeed, it was quite sweet, and very tasty too. "Very nice, Pinkie Pie," she complimented.

"Why thanks," Pinkie grinned, flattered. "Is there anything I can do for you in return?"

"Well, I am just curious, what have you been up to today?" Twilight asked, once again trying to avoid sounding like she was giving an interrogation.

"Oh, just talking with the walls and the moles," Pinkie grinned, as if what she just said was the most casual thing in the world.

"Ok…" Twilight replied, looking a little creeped out. She could see that, for one reason or another, sugar and ice cream stains were on the ceiling of Pinkie's kitchen, and for some reason not on any of the other walls. Also, Pinkie's fur was somewhat sticking up, giving her a crazed appearance.

"Why do you ask?" Pinkie asked, as she walked around in several directions.

"Oh, Twilight's books went missing from her library," Spike explained.

Pinkie gasped, "That's horrible!" she exclaimed, "Why haven't you told this to the cop ponies?"

"No, no reason at all," Twilight tried to assure, "I'm willing to bet I just misplaced them….all 27 of them. Let's go Spike," she called.

"Aw, I wanted another bite," Spike pouted. They continued on their quest.

…

Fluttershy was currently helping Applejack sort some apples into bins. Applejack had told Fluttershy that there was a system to this, apples of different ages, as well as whether or not the apple looked green or red.

"Be careful Fluttershy," Applejack called. Fluttershy had wings whereas Applejack lacked that power, making it easier for Fluttershy to obtain the apples from the trees.

"I will Applejack," Fluttershy smiled kindly, taking great care not to let one fall and potentially smash on the ground.

"Hi Fluttershy, Applejack," Twilight Sparkle called as she and Spike came walking up, "How's the apple picking going?"

"Oh, just fine Twilight," Applejack smiled, "We were gonna invite you, but we saw how busy you were with your research."

"Well, I have a new problem on my hoofs," Twilight explained, "All my books have gone missing."

"Oh no," Fluttershy frowned, "When did that happen?"

"It had to have happened this afternoon," Twilight explained, "I did see all my books around 2."

"We're dealing with a thief, are we?" Applejack said, "A literary bandit!"

"Literary bandit?" Several ponies who were walking by gasped, sending them into a panic. They ran in random directions, screaming randomly.

"Yes, that seems to be the case," Twilight nodded, "Did either of you see anyone weird since you left my house earlier?"

Applejack and Fluttershy did their best to recall what they could.

"I was up in the air, and I saw a few ponies whispering to each other," Fluttershy spoke up.

"About what?" Twilight asked, hoping this would be the answer she was looking for.

"I think I heard them saying something about muffins," Fluttershy explained, "Nothing unusual."

Twilight frowned, it's clear this wasn't getting her any of the answers she needed, but she still didn't want to straight up ask her friends "Were you the one who stole all my books?"

"Should we go out and spread the word to everypony?" Applejack asked, "Maybe that would make it easier to find all those books, Twilight."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Twilight assured, "By the way, you got something caught in your hat."

"Oh, thanks for pointing that out," Applejack said, pulling a piece of plastic out that had gotten caught in her hat.

…

Twilight and Spike were unable to locate where Rainbow Dash was, though Rarity had informed them she had gone on an evening flight.

The two returned to Twilight's library. They figured it was best to head back to square one.

"I don't get it," Twilight told Spike, "Shouldn't one of us have heard a noise? With the amount of books on my shelf, one would've needed to make multiple trips. Surely going in and out that window lots of time would've made at least one of us hear something."

Spike paced around, now blowing into a bubble pipe as part of his Sherlock Hooves costume. "Maybe they found a way to do it all in one trip?"

"But I haven't quite thought of a way somepony could do that," Twilight explained.

It was at that moment did Spike notice an emerald Twilight Sparkle had left sitting on a table. "Nice and shiny…." He drooled, walking to it.

Twlight shook her head and sighed. "Spike, no offense, but don't you think you can get to clingy when it comes to those gems…." She stopped in the middle of her own words.

"No, I don't think so," Spike replied, then he noticed the expression on his friend's face. "What is it?"

"I know who took my books!" Twilight exclaimed. "We have to get going, Spike!"

The dragon and pony took off out of Twilight's house.

…..

Pinkie Pie went over to answer the knock on her door. "Hi again," she smiled to Twilight and Spike, "Did ya want more cake? I'm making a whole new one."

"No," Twilight replied flatly, "I want to know where you're hiding my books."

"Whatever do you mean?" Pinkie asked nervously.

"She figured it out Pinkie," Spike informed, "We know now that it was you."

"And here's how you did it," Twilight began to deduce, "You used static cling. I wondered why you were shuffling across the floor when you and others were here earlier, but now I realize you were building up the static."

"How would that help me swipe your books?" Pinkie giggled.

"The wool covers Rarity made for me," Twilight explained, "They provide good static bonds, so when you had enough buildup, you walked by the books and because of the coves, they clanged to your fur."

"But where's your proof I did any of this?" Pinkie asked, eating more sweets between her sentences.

"There were two pieces of proof," Twilight explained.

"There was the shock I got on the oven door," Spike said, "Because that was metal…"

"Plus, your fur gave you away," Twilight concluded, "It was sticking straight up, like the effect static has on fur."

Pinkie Pie, despite her element being laughter, sighed, knowing she had been found out. "Check the closet on the second floor," she said, and Spike went up to go collect the books.

"Why did you do this?" Twilight asked her friend.

"I saw that you were getting too caught up in those books and not really doing anything else with your time," Pinkie explained, "I didn't want you to become a couch potato, so I figured the best way to get those books off your back was to make them disappear!"

"You could've just talked to me Pinkie," Twilight assured, "It's better to talk about any concerns one may have rather than do something drastic because of them."

Spike had begun bringing down Twilight's books, and soon several of the other ponies arrived to help.

With the help of her friends, Twilight's library was restocked and the purple pony had her next friendship letter to Princess Celestia planned.

…

Spyro was about to enter the answer to Twilight Sparkle's case when he saw that the pony was grinning widely. "What's so funny?" the dragon asked.

"Finished," Twilight replied simply. Spyro looked up to see that, yes, Twilight had solved the dragon's case.

"Darn it," Spyro said, gliding down the hall, "Good game, though."

"Same to you!" Twilight waved back. Twilight had now joined Conan and Francis in the semi-finals, leaving only one more match to go in this round.

…..

Meanwhile, the other detectives had no luck in helping the contest's staff track down Percy.

"Where could he have gone?" groaned Dom.

"We checked every inch of the hotel and the theme park," Yuna noted, "Maybe he went back into the city?"

Conan then stepped forward. "There's still one place we haven't checked," he said.

"Where's that?" Tammy and Vivian asked.

"The auditorium," Conan explained.

"But that place has been closed," Vivian pointed out, "Why would he go there?"

"It's the only place left," Conan said, though he had a very bad feeling he hoped was not true.

….

The group managed to get one of the janitors to unlock the auditorium. "Don't be in there for too long," he requested.

"Got it," Francis nodded. The group stepped inside. They were certain nothing bad could happen….

Tammy then flipped a light switch on so they could get better vision. And what they saw as the lights flickered on horrified them.

"Oh god," Vivian gasped.

"Holy crap…." Dom panicked.

On the stage was Percy, hanging from a noose around his neck, completely lifeless!

Everyone either gasped or screamed in terror.


	8. All You Can Swipe Buffet

**The Toon Files Episode 73: All You Can Swipe Buffet**

In a space no one was quite sure where it was, Fluttershy and Spike began to open their eyes.

"Wha….what happened?" Fluttershy asked, trying to see where she was. When her vision was fully back, she noticed that she appeared to be in a big bubble!

"Fluttershy! Where are we?" Spike called, the young dragon was in another bubble, and the bubbles were completely unbreakable.

"I don't know…" Fluttershy replied timidly. The bubbles were in a mysterious, empty, black and red space.

"You two were the newest ones huh?" a voice suddenly said, it belonged to none other than Skunk.

"What is this place? Hey, you were one of the detectives, right?" Spike asked.

"Yeah," Skunk nodded, "All I can remember was that after my match I was hit with something, and the next thing I knew, I was here. Even my best kung fu can't break through this bubble."

"Then what's going to happen with us?" Fluttershy asked, scared.

…..

"Percy…..my God!" Tammy gasped, as everyone ran up to the body. His feet were about a foot and a half over the stage, and it was clear his life had been over for a bit now.

Conan, Yuna, Francis, even Hadassah went over to the body.

Yuna checked Percy's pulse. "He's been dead for half an hour," she determined.

"But how could that be?" Dom asked, trying to get over the shock.

Fox and Rabbit, overhearing the screams, came running into the room.

"Damn it!" Rabbit growled, seeing the body. He pounded his fist on one of the seats.

"They've turned to murder now?" Fox asked.

"What do you mean?" Conan asked the police couple, confused.

"There's been a group of toons going around, stealing the souls of others," Rabbit informed.

"But there's something that puzzles me about this murder," Francis spoke up, "Look at his paws, they have marks from a rope suggesting they were tied up. This clearly was a murder, not suicide. Yet according to the janitor, the last door to here was locked an hour ago."

"What are you getting at?" Tammy asked.

"He's saying that somehow, the killer managed to hang Percy while not in the room," Conan and Yuna concluded.

"We have to warn the host," Vivian said.

"Where can we find him?" Conan asked.

"He has a room on the highest floor of the resort," Dom informed.

…

Twilight Sparkle was going to tell her friends about her victory when she noticed Kairel, Bagheera, Abigail, Haku, and the Baron.

"Hey there," the pony waved to her fellow detectives, "What's going on?"

The Baron frowned, not enjoying what he had to say next. "Your friends….are somewhere else right now, Ms. Sparkle."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked, when she saw Fluttershy and Spike with the soulless expressions on their faces. "What happened?" she exclaimed, trying to catch their attention.

"Their souls have been taken," Haku informed regretfully.

"What?" Twilight gasped. At this time, Kate, Lily, Garth, Iago, and Thundra were going by.

"What's going on here?" Thundra asked.

"It's not safe," Bagheera said to the wolves and birds. Lily and Kate each had picked out a flower from the resort's garden to put on their heads, though Kate went with her favorite type.

"What do you mean?" Garth asked.

"There's someone going around, stealing other's souls," Kairel informed, "You all must head straight for the exit!"

"I'm liking that advice," Iago nodded.

"Hey guys!" Abigail called to her team, standing atop a pillar. She had found a suspicious set of foot, or rather paw, prints. "I think I may know where we can start."

"Where Abigail?" Haku asked.

"I found some prints, maybe from the guy with the soul-stealing weapon," she informed, "Apparently, we're looking for someone small….."

…

Ironically, the last match of the quarter finals was fairly peaceful. Garfield and Monty had more of a crowd in the resort's theater, though some were still watching the movie playing on the screen, Scream 4.

"That prize money will buy me a million lasagnas," Garfield chuckled.

Though Monty was a devoted racer, he paid close attention to solving the fat cat's case.

…

**Albany, Indiana, 2007.**

Things had made a change for the better for Jon Arbuckle. His long time crush, Liz the veterinarian had finally gone on a date with him that ended rather well, and now the two were officially dating.

Garfield the fat orange tabby cat didn't care that much in that regard, as long as it didn't interrupt his meal times.

Also around was Jon's other pet Odie the dog who had an abnormally long tongue. Also visiting was Nermal, the self-proclaimed "world's cutest kitten", and Arlene, Garfield's on again, off again girlfriend.

"Guys, I have some good news," Jon smiled to the cats and the dog.

"You're moving to Mars?" Garfield replied, though Jon couldn't understand what he or any of the other animals were saying.

"Liz and I are going on a date, and this time, you'll be coming along."

"Great," Garfield and even Nermal said sarcastically. Odie barked happily, not being a talker.

"We're going to the New City Buffet!" Jon announced. THAT made Garfield's face brighten up.

"That's the place where they have that special roast beef!" Garfield grinned, "Let me joke."

"Oh great," Arlene sighed, placing her paw to her face.

…

One hour later, Jon, Liz, Garfield, Odie, Nermal, and Arlene were at the New City Buffet. The smells of the various pastas, burgers, Mexican food, Chinese food, and various other dishes were tantalizing to Garfield.

Odie was eating a steak while Arlene and Nermal each had taken a plate full of seafood.

"Maybe this wasn't the best idea in retrospect," Liz said to Jon, looking at Garfield scarfing down lasagna.

"Need one of these?" Garfield smirked to Arlene, tossing her a toothpick in reference to the noticeable gap between Arlene's two front teeth.

"Whatever," Arlene replied, taking the pick and going towards the buffet.

Odie barked at something and went away as well.

"Need more shrimp," Nermal smiled, getting out of her seat.

"I'm going to need more croutons for my salad," Liz informed Jon, giving him a quick kiss and getting up out of her chair.

…..

Around 7:30 PM, Garfielf was getting tired of waiting for the buffet's world famous roast beef. "Where is it?" he complained.

"Hiding from you fatso," Nermal teased. Just then, the buffet's head chef came out of the kitchen and clapped his hands to catch everyone's attention.

"Finally," Garfield grinned.

"I regret to inform all of you that our famous roast beef will not be served tonight," the chef explained.

"WHAT?" Garfield gasped, jumping out of his seat.

"You can't always get what you want, Garfield," Arlene informed, sneezing a bit.

"The roast beef has unfortunately gone missing, so we will not be serving it," the chef elaborated on.

"A thief?" Garfield said, "Someone stole what I was seeking? I'll get to the bottom of this!"

Nermal and Arlene chuckled. "Come on," Nermal said, "If you try to play Sherlock Holmes, you'll probably just get kicked out or you'll just eat this place empty."

"Ha ha," Garfield laughed sarcastically, getting up out of his seat. "I'll be right back."

Odie barked, getting Jon's attention. "Where did Garfield go?" the cartoonist asked, knowing that whenever his cat went off on his own, the results typically weren't good.

"Be ready to pay the bill…." Liz advised, being savvy of Garfield.

…..

Garfield made his way past the loads of people up at the buffet tables, running around their feet into the kitchen.

"This is just crazy," he overheard one of the chefs say, "Why would anyone steal a stupid few pounds of meat?"

Garfield, despite his round figure, was able to maneuver graciously under the carts and the feet of the chefs, avoiding detection. He looked around for any possible clues.

"There has to be a scent or some trace of the roast," Garfield said, sniffing around the kitchen. He remembers the advertisements for the roast beef, it was a pretty big dish!

But when he accidentally stepped on a pan that had been left on the floor, Garfield accidentally blew his cover.

"A cat!" one of the chefs exclaimed, "Get it out of here!"

Garfield, as much as he hated to do it, put on his "cute" face to avoid pissing anyone off. But that would prove not to be useful here, as the chef who had panicked was allergic to most non-cooked animals, cats and dogs included.

The orange tabby quickly made his way out of the kitchen before anymore commotion could rise.

…..

Nermal, Arlene, and Odie chuckled when they saw Garfield return to his seat. "What's the matter?" Nermal grinned, "Your little detective journey prove to give no results?"

"Oh hardy har har," Garfield frowned, climbing back onto his chair. "I'm not giving up till I get a bit of that roast beef!"

"You keep on being a daydream believer," Arlene said.

It was then Garfield began to get accusatory. "How do I know that none of you were the ones who stole the roast beef?" he pointed to Arlene, Nermal, and Odie.

Odie got an offended look on his face, while Arlene and Nermal scoffed. "Now why would we do something like that?" Arlene asked.

"I know all of you," Garfield smirked, "And each of you have a chance and the motivation to deny me of my precious roast beef."

"Really?" Nermal asked, slapping his paw to his face.

"To begin," Garfield said, hopping out of his chair and pacing back and forth, "There's Odie. I know him….he loves his steaks. And his feeble canine brain can't tell the difference between steak and other types of beef."

Odie barked at that comment, offended.

"Secondly," Garfield continued, "There's Nermal. I've put up with your dumb cute routine long enough to know that you'll crack a joke at me any chance you get. And you know how much that roast means to me. Taking it way from me would fit right into your style."

"Oh please," Nermal chuckled, playing with a broken plastic spoon, "If I wanted to keep a meal out of your paws I'd simply hold it out of your reach by a mere few inches."

"And lastly, there's you Arlene," Garfield said next, looking at his girlfriend, "You comment on my weight so many times. But you know what? Fat is fine. But it isn't good enough for you, I suppose, so you wanted to prevent me from getting a chance to eat my precious roast beef."

"That's absurd," Arlene laughed, not even angry at the accusation, "I think all that food you've been eating has stopped going to you big gut, and now it's going to your head, Garfield."

"I'll show you all," Garfield said, hopping out of his seat again, "I'll find out which one of you is the culprit!"

"I could almost taste the roast myself," Nermal joked, eating some shrimp and sipping his soda, "Almost literally too…"

"What's Garfield doing now?" Jon frowned, seeing his pet hurry away.

"Like I said, we better prepare for chaos," Liz advised, "Whenever Garfield grins, something goes wrong.

…..

Garfield, using his claws, opened a ventilation shaft that was on the ground level. He was able to squeeze himself inside. "This would be the perfect place to hide a roast beef," Garfield told himself, as he eventually made his way above the ceiling.

"Ooohh!" he suddenly shivered, feeling very cold as he climbed over another panel. "This is right above the soda machine's ice maker," he realized, hurrying ahead so his tummy wouldn't freeze over.

As he was crawling, he suddenly felt a tiny poke on his paw. "Ow," he groaned, still moving through the labyrinth of air vents.

Eventually, he reached to where the kitchen was. "The culprit couldn't have gone too far," Garfield deduced, looking about, and using his nose to track the scent. But again, he didn't really pick it up.

"Oooh!" he groaned again, this time because he was above a cooking station where hot steam was emitting. He crawled forward once more to void becoming roasted kitty.

Garfield's search, as he went further and further in, proved to provide no results. "Guess I should just get out of here," he figured, seeing another open panel across from him.

But when he exited, he realized he was in the kitchen's freezer. "Geez it's cold!" he complained, shivering. The sound of his teeth chattering sounded like an entire audience from the echo.

It was then he noticed something that bothered him. "Why was that panel open?" he asked himself.

It was then Garfield felt that tiny poke again. "Oh that's it!" he growled, feeling around for the tiny object that poked him.

When he saw what it was, he froze. "I got it!" He exclaimed. He figured out who the culprit was.

"But that doesn't tell me where the roast is…" he noted, when he began to think back to something someone had said….

"Mystery solved."

…

"Where have you been Garfield?" Jon asked, "You disappeared over 20 minutes ago. And why are you so dirty?"

Garfield ignored his owner as he turned to his friends. "I know who the culprit is," he announced. This was going to be the fat cat's big moment, no pun intended.

"Who was it?" Nermal chuckled, in disbelief.

"It was you, Arlene!" Garfield pointed.

"Me?" Arlene laughed, "What makes you say that?"

"This," Garfield said, holding up the toothpick from earlier. "I found this while I was in the vents. It's the exact some toothpick I tossed at you earlier. Now what was it doing up there?"

"Um, well…." Arlene stammered, but Garfield nonetheless continued.

"I'll tell you what happened: You snuck into the kitchen, swiped the roast beef, then opened up an air vent in the freezer. If you demand proof, let me ask you where you got that cold that made you sneeze, it isn't cold outside at all."

"Nice little theory," Arlene replied, "But that doesn't answer the question, where is the roast beef I supposedly stole?"

"Nermal helped me figure that out," Garfield replied.

"Really?" Nermal asked, happily.

"You said you could almost taste the roast after you sipped your soda, when I remembered….the ice machine had a panel on top of it."

Garfield walked over, took a conveniently placed mallet, and smashed the ice machine, and out fell the frozen missing roast beef.

"Garfield!" Jon exclaimed at the sight of all that property damage.

"So hook, line, and sink me teeth in," Garfield laughed, taking the frozen roast. The chefs, as well as the waiters, cashiers, and janitors were all shocked at the damage Garfield had caused, but the fat cat didn't care, he finally got the meal he had been waiting for.

…

Garfield , in the present, about to solve Monty's case when the kart racer suddenly informed, "I figured you, cat!"

"Wha?" Garfield asked, in the middle of another lasagna break. Unlike his match with Chowder, Monty was an opponent who took any game he played seriously, and had already entered the correct answer after figuring out the mystery of Garfield's case. The racing devotee would be proceeding onto the next round.

"Drat," Garfield frowned, beginning to walk away, "At least I still have these free buffet coupons for the resort.

The semi-finalists were Conan Edogawa, Twilight Sparkle, Monty, and Francis.

…..

However, for most of the other detectives, the tournament was no longer a concern.

"Where can we find the host?" Yuna asked Dom, Vivian, and Tammy.

"He doesn't let people into his room, but there's a video monitor he uses to communicate with others," Tammy explained.

"Show us the way," Spyro said, having joined the others.

….

Near one of the resort's fancier elevators was the aforementioned video monitor.

"Get us in contact," Francis said, the cat taking charge.

"Hey boss," Dom called nervously, pressing a button, "We need to talk right now!"

The mysterious host appeared on a screen in front of the detectives and his staff members. "What is it Mr. Cobberman?"

"Percy's dead," Vivian informed, "He was hanged in the auditorium."

The host gasped…..but he almost didn't look as shocked as he should've been. "A terrible loss indeed, but, alas, the game must go on…..I'm sure this will inconvenience everything…."

All of the detectives look bewildered. "You can't possibly be serious, can you?" Conan asked, "Someone's dead, and you want to continue your silly game?"

"I'm afraid none of you have a choice," the host chuckled, "The tournament must continue. There's only 4 left who are still in the running."

"Are you insane?" Francis yelled.

"No, no I'm not," the host laughed, "But let me tell you. I have a bunch of bombs rigged all over this resort that can't be detected by basic bomb finding devices. And you 4 will finish the game, or I'll blow us all up!"

Everyone looked horrified, this game had taken a deadly turn.


	9. The Final Lap

**The Toon Files Episode 74: The Final Lap**

Conan, Francis, Spyro, Yuna, Monty, and the others were all in a bind. They wanted to focus on solving Percy's murder, but the host would blow up the resort if they tried to not finish the tournament, or tried to give a massive warning. This was proving to be more dangerous than they could have imagined.

"You like me new chain necklace for my emblem?" the host smirked casually, "Now, I'll be sending you the next round list soon."

Luckily, the host did not disallow them from passing off the message to the other detectives or any friends present at the resort.

"We have to think of something," Yuna told her fellow detectives.

"You, Spyro, and Chowder and Garfield have to do something," Twilight told the eliminated detectives, "Me, Conan, Francis, and Monty have to finish this stupid game."

"You can count on us," Spyro nodded, "And we'll try to find out who killed Percy, too."

"And whoever is stealing all these toons' souls," Yuna nodded.

"Can you three do us a favor?" Conan asked Tammy, Vivian, and Dom.

"Anything, what is it?" Vivian replied.

"You've been around this guy more than the rest of us have," Francis continued, "We're thinking he could've told you a hint to where these explosives might be."

"We were hoping you could try to find them," Conan explained.

"You can count on us," Dom nodded.

….

Meanwhile, Rabbit, Fox, and the 5 first round losers were trying to figure out their next move.

"We've got one murder and who knows how many stolen souls on us so far," Fox frowned, "But I'm getting the feeling solving one won't solve the other."

"What do you mean?" Bagheera asked.

"It means the pattern just isn't making sense," Rabbit replied, "Why would whoever are behind this steal the souls of a random group of toons, then suddenly resort to murder? If they only had one intended target and the rest who attacked as cover-ups, why not just steal Mr. Ivers' soul as well?"

"So your saying that the murderer probably has no connection to the guys who are stealing the souls?" Abigail figured.

"Exactly," Fox nodded.

Haku stepped forward, turning into his dragon form. Though the river spirit looked like a human to everyone else, his true form was a water dragon.

"We'll need to get moving, I hear a commotion," Haku informed. Kairel and the others climbed on the dragon's back.

As they flew out of the hotel, they noticed an unusual gathering in the center of the amusement park. "Oh dear…" Bagheera frowned, knowing what this most likely was.

When Haku landed, they discovered what the incident was. A group of dog school kids had taken a field trip to the resort, and they were all standing still with the look in their eyes indicating they were out of souls.

"Damn it…." Bagheera growled, hearing someone laugh up above.

Abigail looked up, only to barely catch a split second glimpse of Belladonna before the hellhound vanished.

….

The host sent the Final Four a piece of paper listing where each of the matches would take place.

"Let's just get through this," Monty sighed.

The Semi Finals stood as such:

Match 13: Conan Vs. Monty (On the amusement park's go-kart track.)

Match 14: Francis Vs. Twilight (In the resort's parking garage.)

"Let's just get this over with," Monty said to Conan.

"It doesn't matter between us who wins anymore," Twilight said to Francis.

But nevertheless, knowing they had no choice, the detectives began their matches.

…

**Drift Arena, Gold City, 1999.**

Monty and a group of his fellow, bodies consisting of only feet, hands, head, and torso friends were a group known as the Speed Punks. They loved kart racing and held tournaments constantly.

The Speed Punks, as the latter half of their name suggested, were not the nicest bunch, but they all loved the sheer thrill of the race.

Though today, they were holding their end of the year grand final race. The chosen track was Drift Arena, a stadium type track with many amusement park rides in the surrounding area.

Among Monty's friends included Tempest the juvenile delinquent, Tabitha the spoiled brat, Brains the science nerd, Monica the boy-attention grabber, Tetsuo a Japanese exchange student, and Buster and Wedgie, two bullies. (What a crew.)

Brains, having lost a bet, was forced to make chili for the rest of his friends. "What a waste of my knowledge," he sighed, serving the dish in bowls.

Cogsworth, Monty's dog, was attracted to the smell of the chili.

"Eh, get to it brain boy," Tempest taunted.

Monica was brushing her hair, even though the wind from the race would mess it up again.

Tabitha was beating up a doll her parents had given her. "Stupid frizzy things," she pouted, tossing it roughly against the concrete road.

….

30 minutes later, the race was ready to begin. All of the Speed Punks were lined up at the starting line. Monty, out of everyone, had the most love of racing, so he was excited for this.

"I'm ready for this," he smirked.

The countdown began. 5…4…3…2….1!

All of the karts took off, starting to race down the track.

Lights flashed from both the picture-taking crowd and the fairground attractions.

"The title's mine, boys," Monica taunted, as she ran through a power-up box and obtained a bomb. She strategically dropped it so Tabitha would run right into it, making her temporarily spin out.

Halfway through the first lap, Monty had a lead over the rest when all of a sudden, his kart gave off an alarm signaling that a missile was on his way.

"Nice try," Monty smirked, turning around to see the distance before the weapon would hit. But when he looked back, he could tell that this missile was different from ones he had seen before. It came crashing into his kart, blowing it to bits and sending Monty flying!

"Ow!" he groaned, landing on the track. His kart had been completely destroyed now, he was out of the race.

…..

On the sidelines, Monty could only watch the race as he applied an ice pack to his back. "Who launched that missile?" he asked, seeing Tempest and the others still zoom down the track.

Cogsworth came running up to his owner, braking excitedly. "What were you doing boy?" Monty chuckled, "It's no use going by my kart pieces, and it's in ruins."

Cogsworth just chuckled and ran in circles.

Monty went over to the concession stand to get himself some French fries. "At least I can use these as fuel," he joked.

A few laps later, he suddenly heard another unnatural explosion. "AGGGHHH!" he heard Brains yell as the scientist among the group was sent flying out of his now destroyed kart.

"Another one?" Monty frowned, helping Brains get out of the other drivers' way, "What's going on here?"

"This happened to you, too, Monty?" Brains asked, "There must be a pattern going on here…."

….

Monty had tried running around the stadium seats to see if he could find the one launching the missiles.

"Ha! Loser!" Tempest and Tabitha both laughed as they drove past, still in the race.

"It had to be you, Tempest," Monty told himself, putting his racing helmet on, "You've always wanted to bring me down…."

"What can we do, Monty?" Brains asked, running up to his fellow Speed Punk.

"Let me tell ya what we can do," Monty replied, "We need to keep an eye on Tempest, he's the type of guy who would be playing with fire, anyways…."

But just then, Monty's theory held no water as nearby, ANOTHER explosion occurred, and this time Tempest was the one sent flying into the air.

"What the heck, dude?" Tempest exclaimed as he crash landed on the dirt road. He rubbed his torso in pain as he ran off the track.

Now only Monica, Tabitha, Tetsuo, and Buster and Wedgie (racing in one kart) were the only ones left in the race.

…

When Monty saw Tempest get back on the sidelines, he gasped as he saw Tempest charging towards him and Brains, looking pissed.

"You did this to me, didn't ya dude?" he growled, punching both Monty and the Brains in the back.

"Ow!" Monty groaned, and Brains only frowned. "It wasn't me man!"

"Then what are we supposed to do about it?" Tempest asked, "I wanna find this guy!"

"Let's split up," Monty suggested, "Brains, you climb onto the Ferris Wheel, you should get an overview of most of the course like that."

"Got it," Brains nodded, taking off where he was told to go.

"And Tempest…." Monty began to say, but it was clear that the rebel among the group had a plan of his own.

"Look Monty," Tempest smirked, "The only way to catch this guy is to face them head on."

"What are you getting at?" Monty asked, not liking where this was going.

"This!" Tempest laughed crazily, hopping onto the track. "I'm gonna catch this guy!"

"Tempest wait!" Monty called, quickly following after, with Cogsworth barking right after him.

….

Along the track, Buster was smacking Wedgie whenever he didn't stop talking, which was not uncommon.

"Yo, shut up man," Buster ordered.

"Yeah, you tell em!" Wedgie laughed, only to earn a slap because Buster was referring to him. "Hey, I dropped my bandana," he frowned.

"It's impressive how pathetic you two are," Monica teased, her purple hair fluttering in the breeze.

"We're gonna make you pay!" Buster vowed, when he kart suddenly began to emit smoke from the engine. "What the?"

The duo's kart soon came to a complete stop. "Fix it, loser!" Buster ordered Wedgie.

…

"Get outta the way!" Tetsuo yelled to Monty as the racer and dog ran across the track.

"This is insane," Monty thought to himself, dodging the 3 remaining karts. He then picked a small object off the ground. It was a piece of Tabitha's doll.

"She really needs to take better care of these," he said to himself, when he noticed Buster's stalled kart. "What happened to you two?"

"Stupid thing just stopped moving, the engine jammed!" Wedgie complained.

Cogsworth ran over to the engine, barking happily at something he detected.

"Not now, boy," Monty said to his dog, "We have to solve this case."

It was then Tempest came running up to Monty, "You have to see what I found, dude!" he smirked, waving his hand to indicate Monty should follow.

….

"Where are we going?" Monty panted, as Tempest did some impressive yet completely unnecessary jumps over the others whenever Monica, Tetsuo, or Tabitha zipped by.

"Over here dude," Tempest explained, pointing to a shadowed out area. "Does this look like a missile launcher to you?"

Monty looked at what the delinquent had found. Indeed, there were two mini-cannons pointing out, readying to fire. And by touching it, he could tell that it was still warm, indicating that it was probably the thing that launched the missile that blew up either his, Temptest's, or Brains's kart.

"Good find, man," Monty complimented. "Though I think this looks like it was remote activated…."

All of a sudden, another explosion was heard. "Not again!" Monty grumbled, taking off in the direction of the blast.

…

"Darn it!" Tabitha complained, "I wanted to win! No fair!" Monty and Tempest came running over to her.

"Another one," Monty frowned, "Someone must still be firing these weird missiles."

"But if they aren't our missiles," Tempest pointed out, "How do they keep hitting us dead on?"

"That's what I've trying to figure out," Monty replied, "It doesn't make any sense."

Monty then saw another one of the missile launchers from another shadowed corner.

"I see…." He noted, "That's how the perp keeps hitting us everywhere around the track, but I have to wonder, how are they launching these missiles?"

"Remote control," Tempest suggested, running off, "I'm gonna grab a bite to eat, dude."

Monty then saw Cogsworth running over to Tabitha's kart, specifically a stain on the ground next to it. Whatever it was, the dog looked eager to get his paws on it.

"I don't get it boy," Monty chuckled, going over to his pet, seeing what Cogsworth was sniffing at.

It was a reddish stain emitting a hot feeling. "Is this blood?" Monty asked, when he dabbed his finger in and smelled it.

"Wait a minute…." Monty realized, "I know who's behind this all now!"

Indeed, the racing devotee had found who the culprit was and how they've been getting the missiles to hit.

"I hope I'm not too late…." Monty said to himself, racing to get to the culprit.

…..

Brains was standing on top of the Ferris wheel, snickering to himself. "It's almost time…" he laughed to himself.

"For what?" Monty and Tempest asked, acting like they didn't know the answer. They had done some impressive flips to reach the basket Brains was on.

"Um…well," the science geek tried to say in his defense.

"Save it Brains," Monty replied, "I figured it out. I know it has to be you."

"And we got proof, too," Tempest added.

"Let me begin," Monty smirked, pacing. "For the first few laps, you used a remote control whenever you were driving near the launcher to launch a missile at one of us. I was only unlucky enough to be first. Then, you tried to write yourself out of the suspect list by destroying your own kart."

"But how could these missiles have hit you guys?" Brains asked in his defense.

"They were heat-seeking ones," Monty explained, "It took me a bit to catch onto your trick. You filled our engines with that chili you made. It's extra hot, and that's what caused Buster's engine to overheat. But my dog Cogsworth was what made me realize that."

"What?" Brains asked, bewildered.

"He kept going over to the destroyed karts, looking all happy. But when I saw Tabitha's blown up kart, I figured everything out. The stain on the ground was from the chili. And the fact you're way up here only helps you, it gives you a powerful enough signal to access all of your hidden missile launchers. And there's one final thing you forgot."

"You can thank me for this one," Tempest laughed.

"You knew your kart would be blown up soon, you put on some padding under your clothes. That's why it didn't hurt when you got slapped on the back by Tempest," Monty concluded.

Brains sighed. "Fine, you win Monty….even though you can't win the race now. I wanted to prove my new powerups were superior to the old ones, so I chose this race as a rehearsal."

"You're gonna pay!" Tempest vowed, and Brains ran off in a panic.

On the ground level, Monica ended up winning the race. Monty applauded her, and even blew her a kiss. Monica only blushed, not wanting to return it.

…..

Meanwhile, in the other parts of the resort, Yuna, Hadassah, and Garfield were looking for clues.

"Why are you using your phone?" Yuna frowned to the Yankerville detective.

"That crazy host guy is so obsessed with getting one of us to solve that Starlight Manor case, right?" Hadassah pointed out, "I was just googling it to see if there's any useful info I can find."

"Good thinking," Yuna complimented, but she sighed when she saw that Garfield was gorging himself. AGAIN.

"Don't you ever not think about food?" the summoner asked the cat.

"No," Garfield replied flatly. He put some more lasagna onto his plate.

….

Back at the Semi-Final matches, Conan was able to solve Monty's case first while Francis deduced Twilight's, making the cat and the teen in a kid's body the Final Two.

"Good game," Monty and Twilight both said to their opponents, though winning was no longer any of their concerns. They had Percy's murder and the safety of all the resort guests to think about.

"Same to you," Conan and Francis replied to their opponents, everyone just wanted to get the competition over with to focus on the more lethal matters.

The 4 who had just competed met up in the lobby, where Dom, Vivian, and Tammy were waiting.

"The host left us a note," Tammy informed, "Telling where the Final Two will have their detective duel."

"I wonder why he didn't go for one of his cheesy introductions," Conan told Francis, who he would be competing against very soon.

"He has to be up to something…." Francis nodded.

"And with Percy's murder," Twilight commented, "We know that this body count can't be over yet…."


	10. Feline Felony

**The Toon Files Episode 75: Feline Felony**

Rabbit and Fox had caught up with Haku's team. "Any luck?" Rabbit asked the 5.

"We have one lead," Kairel nodded, "We know that at least one of the parties involved in the soul stealing business is probably a mouse."

"A mouse who is evil, anyone of you know someone like that?"

Abigail thought for a moment, and then she stepped forward. "I do. His name is Professor Ratigan. Basil of Baker Street told me, Olivia, and Fievel about him. He's really bad news…"

"We've heard of him too," Fox nodded. "At least we know who to watch out for."

"A group of school dogs have lost their souls," Haku informed, "I have a feeling that time is running out.

"Then we can't waste any more time, we need to find Ratigan," the Baron said, "And if he proves to be completely uncooperative, I can threaten to eat him."

The 7 took off to find the suspect, not noticing that Randall had blended in to the nearby wall, overhearing their words.

"Seems we have a threat," the chameleon said, "But those 2 cops…..I think they're better of dead…" he chuckled.

…..

Yuna, Hadassah, and Chowder were looking up info on Starlight Manor while Spyro, Twilight, Monty, and Spyro were investigating Percy's death.

"Seems like there's a lot of sweat on his forehead," Spyro noted.

"Maybe he fought with his killer before he was hung," Monty guessed.

Hadassah, still making us of her cell phone, read through some articles. "This looks interesting…" she noted, "Seems 5 years ago, at Starlight Manor there was a murder. None of the cops were able to find a conclusion…" she read off, as she looked through Yuna's bag.

"Hey!" Yuna frowned, taking the phone in retaliation and kept reading. "Then a few days into the investigation, a private investigator arrived, using a costume to conceal their identity. He gave his deduction, but before the cops could arrest the suspect, the suspect committed suicide."

"Maybe the host is some guy who doesn't believe that," Chowder said, "He wanted one of us to solve the mystery for him."

"But why go to such drastic lengths?" Twilight asked, "He doesn't think the killer is at this very resort, does he?"

"I just hope Conan and Francis are all right," Yuna commented.

…..

Conan and Francis proceeded to the final match of the tournament.

"Let's just get this dumb game over with," Conan said, not feeling a desire to win. He just wanted to solve the case and get back to Rachel.

"Good luck, my friend," Francis wished honestly, as the two began viewing the videos of their opponent's mystery.

…

**Germany, 1994.**

Compared to most other toon detectives, Francis had already been through quite a lot. Ever since he and his owner Gus moved into their new home, Francis was immediately thrust into a murder investigation when a fellow cat was found dead in his backyard. This was where he met Bluebeard, his first ally and friend (albeit somewhat lazy), who helped him solve the horrifying serial cat murders.

Eventually, the killer was revealed to be an old cat named Pascal, whose true identity was Claudandus, who sought to bring back the "felidae" species to its purest form using method I will not describe here because I intend to keep this fanfic at a PG-13 rating. (Hint: it involves selective breeding and murder. Lots and lots of bloody murder.)

Right now, Gus and Francis were taking a little vacation to one of Gus's friend's house because wanted to see some new sites for inspiration for the cheap novels he writes in his spare time. As Francis would tell you, it doesn't help.

When their car pulled up to their destination, Gus took out the bags and Francis prepared to follow when suddenly, someone emerged from the backseat.

"Is the can opener gone?" Bluebeard asked, the cat with a scar around his eye emerging from a pile of clothes.

"Bluebeard! What are you doing here?" Francis exclaimed to his stowaway friend.

"I have a cousin who lives around here," Blubeard explained, tossing a pair of boxer shorts off of him, "Plus word on the street is that the can opener's food around here is to die for."

"Gus looks like he'll be busy for a while, why don't we go find your cousin?" Francis asked, "I've always been curious what your relatives must be like."

"Not a bad idea for once," Bluebeard replied.

…..

After around 10 minutes, Bluebeard and Francis came up to a parking garage. "Is this a hospital?" Francis asked, looking up.

"Yeah, so?" Bluebeard replied, "This crappy place is a haven for mice, so lots of cat in these parts "volunteer" at the hospital. Getting paid to be customers at an all-you-can-eat buffet, every cat's dream."

"Well if it isn't cousin Blue," a cat's voice was heard chuckling. A cat with blue fur came jumping off the top of a car.

"Redbeard," Bluebeard smirked.

"Clever name…." Francis said sarcastically.

"This is my friend Hansel, and his sister Serenity," Redbeard introduced next.

"Hello there," Serenity waved shyly, "Please come in, both of you."

….

That particular hospital wing was somewhat abandoned. Perfect for the cats. Redbeard showed his cousin and Francis around.

"Fine accommodations you have here," Francis said.

"Though not my style," a voice chuckled, in a rather mean-spirited tone. A slim, grey-furred cat walked by.

"Ludger…." Redbeard growled, "What are you doing here?"

"Just seeing if my can opener is recovering," Ludger replied, "Until then, I have his apartment all to myself. He pointed a claw to a window, indicating the apartment was just across the street from the parking garage."

"Just go away Ludger," Hansel said, standing in front of his sister.

Ludger smirked and began to walk away.

"He has no idea how to act around other cats," Jacob, another one of Redbeard's friends, who was very popular with the ladies, joked.

…..

30 minutes later, Francis overheard a doctor saying that Ludger's owner would be released from the hospital within 2 hours.

"That's good," Francis smiled.

"For what?" Bluebeard asked, chowing down on a mouse.

"To get that jerk to shut up and spoil his fun isolation," Francis informed.

"But where can we find him?" Bluebeard asked.

"Floor 4, Room 11," Serenity suddenly informed.

"How do you know that?" Francis asked.

"We used to be dating," Serenity replied, "I even still have a spare key he gave me, though he usually keeps his door unlocked."

"Geez….that relationship couldn't have gone well," Bluebeard commented.

…

When Francis and Bluebeard arrived at the apartment, they found the door locked. "Just our luck," Bluebeard complained.

"We're not out of hope yet," Francis replied, slipping in through the tiny window at the top of the door. When he got inside, he noticed Ludger resting at the doorframe to the apartment's balcony.

"Sleeping, of course…" he chuckled, until he got closer. When Francis put a paw on Ludger, he realized, the feline was dead! "Dear God…." Francis gasped. Ludger's throat had been slit.

"What happened in there?" Bluebeard called. Francis searched around for a key, eventually finding one on a nearby table. He unlocked the door and let Bluebeard in.

"I guess murder investigations aren't behind us yet," Francis sighed.

"Ick," Bluebeard frowned, "But the guy kind of had it coming…"

"We have a problem here Bluebeard," Francis replied, "Though I could slip in through that window from the hallway, there's nothing one can use to reach it from inside this room. Also, the key I found to let you in was in on a table not within throwing distance for a cat from that window."

"What are you getting at, Francis?" Bluebeard asked.

"What I'm saying is that we're dealing with a locked room murder, a case where it's pretty much impossible for anyone to have committed the crime, cat or can opener!" Francis said, stepping out onto the balcony.

He looked straight down. The nearest balcony wasn't for several feet. "No one climbed up from below…" Francis deduced, then he looked at the balcony railing. There were two grooves along the side, a few feet apart.

"We should go back and tell everyone," Francis said, "As well as hear what their alibis are…"

…

"What?" Redbeard asked, surprised, "He's dead?"

"Stone cold," Bluebeard replied, flatly. Bluebeard in general was more apathetic towards death.

"How could that be?" Serenity asked, she was helping Hansel pick some gravel out of his claws.

"We found him in his apartment, with his throat cut," Francis explained, "And from what I've determined, a can opener is most likely not the culprit."

"So you're saying it's one of our own?" Jacob asked, his posse of girl cats following right behind him.

"We hate to say it, but yeah," Bluebeard nodded, biting on a captured mouse. Because of the construction going on in the new wing, rodents had been able to find their way inside, but the staff greatly appreciated all of the felines who acted as an environmentally friendly pest control service.

"And, we need to ask all of you where you were about 30 minutes ago…" Francis said.

"Don't tell me your suspecting us," Redbeard scoffed, offended. "It takes about 20 minutes to get from where we saw Ludger last to his apartment, and that's if you're running the whole way!" Redbeard was trying to lick a cut he had obtained on his paw.

"Actually, there's one I want to talk to," Francis replied.

….

"Yes, he dumped me, but I don't hold anything against him," Serenity said, patting her stomach gently.

"But you were the one who had the key to his apartment," Francis reminded.

"I keep it in an old room, most cats who know me know where it is," Serenity reminded. She felt very uncomfortable by the accusation, though anyone would feel the same stress her.

"She didn't do it!" Hansel insisted, angry that this new cat was accusing his sister of murder.

"She only left for about 5 minutes," Hansel continued, "And she only went to get a drink of water."

"What about you?" Bluebeard asked, looking at Hansel.

"I was chasing a stray mouse, but I was only gone for ten minutes. I stayed in the fancier part of the hospital. Redbeard can attest to that."

"Fine…" Bluebeard huffed, walking out of the room. "Sorry Francis, but I have to grab a bite to eat now."

"Bluebeard, always thinking with his stomach," Francis sighed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't have been of anymore assistance," Serenity apologized.

"Don't worry about it miss," Francis assured.

…

"You're wasting your time," Redbeard chuckled, seeing Francis look for clues, "Everyone here at the hospital has an alibi."

"I've learned things aren't always as they seem," Fransis retorted.

"Well, I know it wasn't me," Jacob chuckled, "I was with my lovely ladies here the whole time."

"For some reason, I believe that," Francis replied, "But if there's any clues, they have to be in this building somewhere."

Just then, tow hospital orderlies walked by, and the cats only made typical cat noises. "I'm so glad someone stopped those burnouts we kept hearing," one of the two said.

"But we never saw who was doing it," the other added, "Probably just some dumb teens…"

Francis suddenly took off.

…

In the hospital's parking lot, Francis was looking for a potentially important clue. "I hope it's still here…." He told himself.

Then, he did indeed see one parking space where it looked like it had been rammed into. Francis looked down, and saw that it was right across from Ludger's balcony.

"I see…." Francis smiled, beginning to figure out the trick, "But it's hard to believe the killer would take a gamble like this, it could easily backfire!" But when he examined the wall, he noticed two grooves etched into it, like on the balcony. "Wait a sec," he smirked, beginning to get a clearer picture.

Francis then looked down and saw a big sheet had fallen onto the street.

"I've got it!" he smiled, preparing to head back inside, when one more detail hit him.

"This doesn't narrow it down to one possible suspect," Francis thought, "It could be one of two…."

Francis then saw something had been dragged out near the empty parking space. A scrape mark was left along the ground, and the feline followed it until he came across the source.

A cinderblock had been smashed into pieces, and dust and tiny bits of it were all gathered in a pile.

"What do we have here?" Francis said, seeing some red marks on a few of the pieces. He thought back to earlier.

"I know it now," Francis smiled, "The killer behind this crime….."

…..

Bluebeard burped as he ate some food he had swiped from the kitchens. "The reviews did not lie, this is amazing…." He grinned.

"What are you so happy about?" Jacob asked, seeing Francis return with a smile on his face.

"I know who the murderer is!" Francis announced, getting a collective gasp from the others.

"You do?" Hansel asked, surprised.

"Yup, but I'll need you all to follow me to the parking garage," Francis informed.

"Let's go sis," Hansel told Serenity as the siblings, Bluebeard and his cousin, and Jacob followed Francis.

…..

"What could you have possibly found?" Redbeard asked, scoffing, "None of us could have made it to Ludger's place and back in time!"

"That was the trick," Francis replied, "Ludger was actually killed here in this parking garage!"

Everyone gasped once again.

"The killer first lured Ludger out here, then cut his throat. Then the killer placed the body on the hood of a car, and caused it to drive at full speed, and when it crashed into the wall, it launched him across the street onto the balcony of his apartment and a little ways into the room!"

"But who could've done this?" Redbeard asked.

Francis pointed his claw. "It was you, Hansel!" he revealed.

Everyone gasped at the reveal, Serenity and Hansel were not surprisingly the most shocked by the accusation.

"Brother, no!" Serenity said horrified.

"How could you even be sure a crazy plan like that would work for anyone?" Hansel asked in his defense.

"You had a backup plan," Francis continued, "You rigged fishing wire with a big sheet from the parking lot to the balcony railing. I found pairs of grooves on both places."

"But where's you proof I did any of this?" Hansel asked.

"Check your paws," Francis retorted, "That gravel you picked out came from this cinderblock, which has some of Ludger's blood on it. You're done."

"How could you?" Serenity asked her brother in shock.

"I did it for you, sis," Hansel admitted, "That bastard Ludger…you know those feelings in your stomach? He impregnated you, and dumped you because of that! I couldn't forgive him for that…." He began to sob.

"Whoa…" Redbeard said, he, Francis, and Bluebeard knew it was best to leave the siblings alone for now. The other cats quickly left the area.

….

In the resort, in a twist Conan wasn't seeing coming, just before he could enter the answer for Francis' case, the cat beat him to the punch.

"The winner, and grand champion detective is Francis!" an electronic voice announced, firing confetti everywhere.

"Good one, man," Conan said, not upset that he lost. He just wanted to get this potentially deadly game behind him and solve Percy's murder.

"Let's find the others and go confront the host," Francis said.

…

As the 5 round 1 eliminated detectives were looking for signs of Ratigan, Abigail noticed someone familiar.

"Basil!" the woodmouse waved, seeing the mouse Sherlock Holmes.

"Ah Abigail," Basil replied, "Were you the one who called me here?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Haku asked in return.

"Someone sent me a note, telling me to come here…." But before he could finish his words, he was hit was something. One of the soul stealing bullets.

"What the?" Kairel exclaimed, when they heard some sinister chortling. It was Prof. Ratigan!

"I've finally done it!" Ratigan laughed, "I've locked that fool Basil away! This day can only go uphill from here!"

"Get him!" Bagheera called. Ratigan pulled out his soul gun again, preparing to fire on the five.

Only, as he learned, he was now out of ammo. "Oh dear…." He replied, giggling nervously, beginning to run.

"After him!" Abigail yelled, wanting revenge. She wasn't going to let that dirty rat get away with what he had done!

….

Conan, Francis, Yuna, Hadassah, Monty, Twilight, Spyro, Chowder, and Garfield were riding the elevator with Vivian, Dom, and Tammy to the host's room as they got no reply on the video monitor.

"What do you think?" Francis asked his former rival.

"About what?" Conan asked.

"That host creep. He was crazy enough to rig this whole place to blow, he'd have to have known we'd go against his scheme when this tournament was all over."

"You think he has a trap waiting for us, right?" Conan deduced.

"Exactly," Francis nodded, "We're going to have to grab him as soon as we enter the room."

"That won't be a problem," Conan smirked, kneeling over and adjusting his sneakers.

"What are you doing friend?" Francis asked, confused.

"This is one of Doc Agasa's inventions," Conan explained, "With one good kick, even an empty can of pop can take someone out."

"We are getting some answers, and we're getting them now!" Spyro vowed.

"And maybe some food…." Garfield added, he and Chowder beginning to drool.

"Those two…." Francis sighed, shaking his head.

They reached the host's room, and tried to open the door.

"Locked," Hadassah grumbled.

"Stand back," Yuna said, pulling out a gun. "I've had experience with this," she exclaimed, referring to her journey 2 years after she beat Sin. She shot the door handle and the lock, opening the door.

Inside the room was a desk, with the host sitting in a chair….bleeding from the neck. He was gone from this world.

"What the?" everyone yelled.


	11. The Haunted Shipwreck

**The Toon Files Episode 76: The Haunted Shipwreck**

"For real, he's dead?" Chowder asked, having a hard believing what he was seeing.

Conan raced over to the body to make sure. "We're too late…" he sighed, feeling the host's lack-of pulse.

"How could this be?" Francis asked, the winner of the tournament was just as perplexed as everyone else.

"Pull off the mask," Twilight advised, and Conan did so. Underneath the mask revealed the host was actually a puma, and though the face was unfamiliar to most, Yuna and Hadassah gasped.

"What is it?" Conan asked.

"We saw this guy's face on the internet," Hadassah explained, "His name is Robert Siland, he was one of the suspects in the Starlight Manor case."

"But why did he gather all of these detectives here?" Garfield asked, eating some candy off the victim's desk.

"That's not our biggest concern," Hadassah replied, "With him dead, we should tell Rabbit and Fox to evacuate the resort." She took out her cell and began dialing the cops' numbers.

"That's not our only problem," Conan said, walking to the room's window. He tried to open it, but it only opened about a foot. Several feet away was a tree that one could not make the gap from.

"What are you saying?" Garfield asked.

"This looks like a locked-room murder," Twlight said.

"And the culprit can't be too far away," Francis added.

Dom, Tammy, and Vivian were all in a panic. "What should we do now?" Dom asked.

"You go try to get out as many resort guests as possible," Yuna told the trio, and they took off down the elevator.

….

"You get back here!" Abigail yelled to Ratigan. Haku had transformed into his dragon form again, and Kairel, Abigail, the Baron, and Bagheera were riding atop him again.

"Just don't…..try to kill him, Abigail," Bagheera said, the panther could see how the young woodmouse did seem very much ticked.

"I…won't," Abigail promised, "Besides, when we get that jerk, we can have him tell us where his boss is."

"Good thinking," Kairel smiled, ready to trap Ratigan with her teeth or by sitting on him if needed.

…

"Another corpse?" Rabbit asked, taking the call from Hadassah. He and Fox were instantly upset by the news. They were, once again, unable to prevent the death. It was like a tragic running gag for them.

"Who was it this time?" Fox asked.

"Get this….the host's dead," Rabbit explained. "But right now, since he can't activate those bombs Hadassah told me about, we need to notify the rest of the force about this."

Fox took out her communicator to contact the rest of the force.

…

The news spread quickly in Toon Town. The various news outlets were all over the story of the two murders and the various stolen souls at the Grand Resort.

"Authorities have been trying to get inside to aid in the investigation, but some mysterious force seems to be blocking them from getting past the gate," Vitani said on the Toon Town Evening News. When she was not in the Pride Lands, Vitani had inherited her father's talent for public speaking and gave reports.

"Thank goodness we did not get tickets to that place," Mason told Maviy in a lesser star hotel room. The flooded world survivors had since become King Caltrin's servants, and Mason became Maviy's permanent boyfriend.

"Yeah, lucky for us," Maviy nodded.

"You guys got any more cola in here?" Sarada asked, the skunk barging in. She had since learned how to control her…odors and how to prevent random spraying.

Yugi Moto and Joey Wheeler were in the arcade of the more average hotel. "Good thing the Duel Monsters tournament wasn't being held there, Yuge," Joey said.

"You said it Joey," Yugi nodded.

…

Deep in the caverns below Toon Town, Belladonna was talking with her mysterious master.

"Are we almost done yet?" the hellhound asked, clearly wanting to have a new way to spend her time.

"Almost there…." The mysterious person replied, "Soon, I will have enough souls to bring the one I need….."

…..

**Antarctica, 1995.**

After hearing the news report, a penguin named Hubey raced back to the portal to his home world to check on his friends and his mate, Marina.

"What's gotten you into such a panic, Hubey?" Marina chuckled.

Hubey sighed, relieved/ "You haven't seen any creepy characters around here, have you?" he asked.

"Nothing like that," Marina replied, "Though Rocky and some of our friends have come up with a "Scary idea", as they call it."

"What are they up to now?" Hubey laughed.

"We're gonna go find that old shipwreck," Rocko grinned, "They say ghosts haunt it, and I wanna see if that's for real!"

Melody, a friend of Marina's, went up to her. "It'll happen soon," she grinned.

"What?" Marina replied, knowing the answer quite well.

"I have my pebble ready to give to him, I know it's a reverse of how the ritual goes, but still…." She grinned, holding an aquamarine pebble in her flipper. "This is his color, after all."

"Let's just go help him on this fun little game of his for now," Marina smiled.

….

Also waiting at the ship were two penguin brothers, Waldo and Cory, who were very superstitious.

"The ghosts are gonna get us," they both shivered to Rocko.

"Don't worry you two," Hubey replied, "I'm sure Rocko has a plan in case any ghosts try to attack."

"And my plan is this: Let's split up gang!" Rocko announced, "I'll take the captain's cabin, Waldo and Cory, you two go onto the deck, Hubey, you look around the engine room, Melody, you take the crew's quarters, and Marina, you look in the dining hall."

"Aye aye, captain!" Hubey jokingly saluted.

…

The penguins splat up to hunt for the infamous "ghost." As Hubey made his way to the engine room, he noticed the ship's hall had a glass bottom floor over the food storage, below.

"These humans must've went fancy," he said, seeing Rocko proceed upstairs.

"I'm gonna find that ghost and take him down!" Rocko vowed.

Hubey just chuckled to himself as he went downstairs.

The penguin was not too fond of the engine room, not because of any paranormal belief, but rather because of the temperature. It was still rather hot despite being caught in the artic, though being in too cold an environment could freeze even him.

"I shouldn't hang around here for too long," Hubey told himself. He paced back and forth, all around the engine room, but alas, no ghosts.

After several minutes, Hubey decided to give up. He went back upstairs, and called to Rocko. "Any luck?" he got no response.

He shrugged his flippers heading out back into the artic. He saw Waldo and Cory looking around, visibly sweating.

"Have you guys seen Rocko?" Hubey asked.

Cory frowned. "You mean he hasn't come back?"

"The ghost must've got him!" Waldo concluded with fear.

"Calm down, calm down," Hubey assured, "That could've been what happened, just follow me, we'll go find the others."

…

Melody and Marina had also met up. "Hey boys," Melody smiled, "You find the…g..g..?" she asked, saying that lost word in a haunting tone.

"No, we didn't," Hubey replied, chuckling at the joke. "We're just going to find Rocko."

As the 5 penguins waddled through the ship's hallway, Marina happened to look down. "I think I've found him," she said.

"Huh?" Hubey asked, looking down through the glass panel, seeing Rocko, walking around dizzily, in the food storage below!

"Get me out of here!" Rocko called.

"Oh geez," Hubey gasped, "We gotta get down there, everyone!"

…..

Hubey, Marina, Melody, Waldo, and Cory made their way down to the food storage room.

"I can't get this open," Marina said, struggling with the handle, "It must be sealed shut."

"We're gonna need to break down the door," Hubey said, looking for something they could use.

"The ghost locked him in, we'll never be able to get him out!" Cory panicked, bumping into Waldo, who was rather….round.

"I have an idea…." Hubey smirked.

ONE MINUTE LATER…..

Waldo was going to be used as a battering ram by the other penguins. "Careful!" he called, as they smashed through the door, freeing Rocko.

"Thank goodness," Rocko said, rubbing his head.

"What happened to you, buddy?" Hubey asked.

"I don't know," Rocko replied, stepping out of the locker. "One minute I was up in the captain's cabin, looking for signs of the ghost, when all of a sudden felt something push me forward, and the next thing I know, I awoke in here."

"But how can that be?" Cory asked, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, "This door was locked, we had to break it open."

"Don't remind me," Waldo sighed, rubbing his head. He hadn't appreciated being used as a battering ram.

"Could it be?" Hubey asked, looking around, "Was it a ghost?"

…

The penguins went back up to the captain's cabin where Rocko had been searching for the mysterious spirit.

"There has to be something up here," Hubey said, "Maybe you were attacked with something."

Marina looked around as well, seeing some windows. Right out of those windows were some icy walls that surrounded the ship.

"Maybe someone snuck in through those," Melody suggested, joining her friend.

Hubey looked around, trying to see any other suspicious objects. "Here's a pretty big air vent," he noticed.

"I think I saw that before," Rocko said, "It doesn't go far, I think it leads back to the hallway."

Cory and Waldo were in separate corners of the room, shaking in fetal position.

"Wow," Melody sighed, "You two really are that hopeless, huh?"

"It's not our fault," Cory said, taking some cubed ice and surrounding himself with it, "We reawaked the ghost by disturbing it's resting place. We never should have gone with Rocko on this!"

"What's with the ice?" Marina asked.

"It's something my grandfather taught me and Waldo," Cory said, "If you surround yourself with triangular blue ice cubes, it wards off spirits."

"That's crazy," Melody laughed, "Ghosts don't exist, and you should know that."

….

Hubey opened up one of the doors in the captain's cabin. Even compared to the rest of the arctic, this room was particularly cold.

"Geez," Hubey shivered, "What is this place?"

"Probably where the captain kept a stash of cold drinks," Rocko deduced, "It's practically a freezer in there!"

"I think you may be right," Hubey nodded, his body beginning to feel lke it was starting to freeze. He quickly exited the room.

…..

What really surprised Hubey was that some of the ship's technology was still in use, such as a microwave in the kitchen and an emergency hose in the ship's hall.

"The humans who captained the ship spared no expense," Melody noted.

But there was something Hubey couldn't shake off his mind. When they found Rocko, he was in a locked room. They had to batter the door open. How could anyone have placed Rocko inside that room. Even if Rocko did it to himself, it still didn't make any sense.

"How did this happen?" Hubey asked, looking at the glass panel that was above the food storage locker.

T was then the waddling penguin saw an unusual marking on the hallway floor. There were some white markings that did not appear to be snow. They appeared to be a scape of some kind.

"Rocko!" Hubey said, beginning to develop a theory, "Do you remember anything odd when you woke up down there?"

"Hmm…." Rocko tried to recall, "Let me think…..Well, I think the room must've suffered some damage, because when I awoke, the room was flooded a bit."

"Did you find anything odd?" Hubey asked, hopefully.

"Well, I remember something falling around my ear," Rocko said, feeling around his head, "I think I still have it on me…."

Rocko eventually produced his discovery, a tiny blue rock. "Does this mean anything?" Rocko asked Hubey, "I just found this, that's all."

"Oh, it means a lot," Hubey smiled, "It's the answer to this mystery!"

…..

"You mean that pebble is the source of the ghost's powers?" Waldo and Cory gulped, the two siblings clinging to each other in horror.

"No, it's not that at all," Hubey smiled, "It proves that the one behind Rocko's teleportation was…Melody!"

"Me?" Melody chuckled, not even offended, "How could that even be possible?"

"You used the windows to your advantage," Hubey began to explain, "From the crew's quarters, you climbed out one of the windows and used the small gap between the ship and the wall to ascend to the top floor where Rocko was without being seen."

"That makes sense," Marina said, "But that still doesn't explain one important thing: How did Melody manage to get Rocko into that locked room?"

"Fitting for our artic home," Hubey replied, "She froze him."

"Whaaaa?" Rocko asked, completely surprised.

"With the help of that hose we found," Hubey deduced, "She quickly pushed Rocko into that cold room in the captain's cabin, and froze him by spraying him with water. Then Melody, you pushed the Rocko-sicle down the air vent into the hallway."

"But how'd she get me into that room?" Rocko questioned.

"That glass panel we saw," Hubey reminded, "It's removable. I saw the scrape mark on the halway's floor, so your frozen self-slid down right into that room, where the temperature down there melted you back to normal. That's why there was water on the floor."

"But where's your proof I did any of this?" Melody questioned.

"The rock," Hubey concluded, "The one Rocko had. That's the pebble you intend to give in for an engagement gift, correct?"

Melody could only nod. Rocko looked surprised. "You want to become my mate? By what would you do something crazy like this?"

"Because crazy is my style," Melody giggled, "I just want you to begin to expect the unexpected. With me as your mate, you should be expecting a lot of that." She then kissed Rocko.

Everyone else awed, even if the scene was indeed a bit awkward.

…

Back in the Toon Town Resort, Ratigan was failing to outrun the 5 detectives who were literally hot on his tail.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to Bartok and Basil!" Abigail yelled as Bagheera and Kairel leaped off the dragon Haku's back and knocked the evil mouse (not rat!) down.

"Don't kill me….don't kill me…." Ratigan begged, honestly fearing for his life.

"Hmm…" Kairel smirked, pretending to be in a happy mood, "I could really use a snack right now. And the world could always use one less mouse and one more satisfied feline. No offense, Abigail."

"None taken," the Dapplewood resident replied.

"I'll tell you everything I know!" Ratigan promised.

"What you say isn't as important as where you can take us," Haku said, resuming his human form.

…..

Back in Mr. Siland's room/crime scene, the detectives were investigating the murder.

Twilight Sparkle was still concerned about finding the culprit behind the theft of Spike and Fluttershy's souls.

"Check his pockets," Chowder suggested, "Maybe he has some trigger for the bombs that we can turn them off with."

"Good thinking," Spyro nodded to the apprentice chef, going over and fiddling with Robert's pockets.

"Be careful," Conan advised, unsure about a dragon's claws, "Maybe I should handle this…"

"What's the problem?" Spyro asked, unintentionally knocking something out of Robert's pocket, landing on the floor.

When it did, the detectives heard the sound of a button being pressed.

"Destruction Sequence activated," an electronic voice emitting from the remote said, "90 minutes until total destruction."


	12. Blast From The Past

**The Toon Files Episode 77: Blast From The Past**

"What was that?" Yuna asked in horror, the detectives frozen in shock for a few seconds.

"You mean this whole place is gonna go boom?" Garfield frowned, "But I haven't even managed to have two trips to the buffet yet!"

"Guys, don't panic," Monty spoke up, "We have an hour and a half until we have to escape, and maybe that thing wasn't referring to a bomb…"

"You're being a little too optimistic," Conan said, "But, Rabbit and Fox should already be in the middle of the evacuation of this place, so we can focus on solving the two murders."

"But how did anyone get in or out of here?" Twilight asked, "The door was locked, and that window barely opens."

"Maybe so, but something tried to get through this window," Yuna replied, looking at the frame, "It looks like a bunch of claw marks are on here."

"But that gap is too small for even me and Skunk, and we were pretty much the smallest," Twilight pointed out.

"Some of us should head back down to the auditorium," Spyro suggested, "To investigate Percy's murder more."

"Yeah, I'll get to that," Garfield nodded, picking around inside the deceased host's desk drawers, when he suddenly felt something he wasn't expecting to find. He pulled it out so the others could see.

"What the?" Conan asked, shocked.

"What was a gun doing in there?" Francis gasped, "He wasn't shot to death."

….

Rabbit and Fox were trying to figure out a way to get the guests safely out of the resort. The magic seal that had been placed over the front gate did provide one small solace: it only went to a certain height. Helicopters were called in to free the guests, but the problem was that several guests did not believe what they were saying.

"We may be running out of time," Fox said, looking at a watch, "I haven't seen the competing detectives for a while, either."

"I'm sure they have something planned," Rabbit said, knowing they were investigating the now two murders, "We just need to focus on getting everyone to safety."

"Agreed," Fox nodded to her husband.

Randall was nearby, waiting to lure the police couple into a trap and attack.

Fox swore she could've heard some kind of hissing at that moment, but the sudden silence made her think the voices were just in her head.

"Something the matter?" Rabbit asked.

"Oh nothing," Fox replied.

…

Knowing that trying to screw the group over would result in instant death, Ratigan informed Haku, Abigail, the Baron, Kairel, and Bagheera of the path down the cavern where the soul-stealing group resided.

"Behind that structure is a hole in the ground," the trapped mouse pointed.

"Creepy," Abigail noted as the group found the aforementioned entrance and began their descent.

"It's about a mile walk to where my employer can be found," Ratigan said. Kairel held him in a tiny cage they had prepared.

The Baron, Bagheera, and Haku were examining the mouse's soul gun.

"Odd design," Haku said, "Even in the bathhouse I never saw anything like this."

"I have been to many other worlds myself," the Baron informed his allies, "And even I haven't seen any sort of weapon like this."

But Bagheera had the most puzzled look on his face. There was a symbol on the side of the gun….he could've sworn he had seen it before!

"What's got your mind?" the Baron asked the panther.

"This symbol, I've….I've seen it before," Bagheera realized, "Long ago, when I was a cub…"

"Really?" Abigail asked, the woodmouse getting interested, "Tell us what you remember."

Bagheera then told his friends about the story of where he first saw the symbol, which, for the convenience of the reader, will be told in the third person.

…..

**The jungles of India, 1890.**

Long before the animals had gone their separate ways, Bagheera, Shere Khan, Baloo, Kaa, Haithi, and Louie were all friends as children and hung out together.

What in the future would be Louie's throne was dubbed "The Cub House" and was their main hangout spot.

"Seems like the perfect weather for me, the mighty Khan to go hunting," the young Shere Khan smirked, his ego existed even back then.

"Hey animals, are we almost done with the cleaning?" Baloo asked, the young bear and the rest of his friends had to clean up the ground after a mud slide coated the base of the ruins in mud.

"Cleanliness is important Baloo," Bagheera said, "And we've barely even started on this. Don't be taking a nap now."

"I actually have to agree with Bagheera," Khan spoke up, "A clean throne is the only throne acceptable for someone as mighty and great as I am," he added smugly.

"You do realize this is not your palace, eh Khannie?" Louie smirked, swinging around on the nearby vines.

"Oh it WILL be," Khan said with sheer confidence, "One day, all of you will bow before me and know what REAL power is."

"If telling yourself that helps you sleep at night, keep thinking that Khannie," Baloo chuckled, wanting to just take a nap, but Bagheera wouldn't let him be lazy.

…..

Sometime that afternoon, the cubs were in for a surprise. Two wolves, Akela and Leah, who had come to their ruins in the past and Leah had even given birth there, had come back to visit their friends.

"Hello again," Akela smiled, "How have you 6 been?"

"Sssssuperb," Kaa grinned, slithering down a pillar, "What are you two doing back here?"

"We wanted to introduce some of our new pack friends to you," Leah explained, stepping aside to show 3 female wolves and 2 male ones.

"The girls are Maris, Ty, and Jayita. The boys are Honda and Oseer," Akela introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you," Honda smiled, offering his paw, "Your jungle is fascinating, lots of specimens I've never seen before."

Bagheera grinned at that, a fellow scholar! "We have lots to talk about."

Maris looked at all the cubs and smirked, "Heh, none of you look as tough as me," she bragged.

"We'll see…." Khan smirked in reply, the tiger cub hopping down. He always liked a challenge…especially the ones where he would win.

Baloo noticed something Ty had. "What's that around your neck?"

"Oh, it's something I've seen a human with," Ty replied. The object was a necklace with an emblem hanging from it.

"That thing really does not look good on you," Jayita told Ty, "You won't attract many guys with it, unlike me." Jayita was the flirt of the group.

"You guys wanna play tag?" Oseer asked, the youngest of the pack, "I'm always up for a good game."

…

The cubs had gotten to meet the new wolves and hung around for several hours.

Though, as the evening approached, Ty went over to Bagheera. "I can't find it," she said.

"Find what?" the young panther asked.

"My human thing," Ty explained, "I think someone must've taken it."

"Do you remember where you had it last?" Bagheera asked politely.

"I went for a swim, so I set it by a tree. I guess someone must've moved it then."

"Any idea who could've taken in?" Bagheera questioned.

"I don't smell any humans," Ty explained, "So I think it may have been one of my friends."

"Don't go accusing them so quickly," Bagheera advised, "You don't want to mess up your friendship with those guys. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll get my friends and we'll form a search party."

"Thank you so much, kid panther," Ty said, forgetting Bagheera's name for a moment.

…..

"Why do we have to waste our time hunting for a human thing?" Khan sighed.

"Because it's nice, Khannie," Louie replied, using the nickname the tiger wasn't fond of.

"I've checked all around the waterhole," Hathi informed, "I guess we'll just have to check back at the Cub House."

"I could use a rest," Baloo chuckled, getting a disapproving look from Bagheera.

"Any luck finding Ty's thing?" Akela asked the cubs.

"Not yet, my canine friend," Louie replied, swinging from the vines.

The wolves minus Ty were already at the Cub House. All of them had since gotten dirty.

Oseer's tail was drenched in the mud of the ruins, though they had overheard him sliding around. Maris's claws were dirty due to the mud and she was desperate to pick them clean. Jayita's paws were covered in mud from base to top. Lastly, Honda's underbelly was drenched in mud. He complained about the feeling.

"Chances are it's gone Ty," Honda deduced, "Maybe we should just give up the search."

"I'm not giving up," Ty replied.

Just then, two shadows flew overhead.

"Oh great," Hathi sighed, "It's the vultures again. Can't they leave well enough alone?"

"Look Cecil," Arthur, one of the two vultures smirked, "Wolves! I'm sure they're gonna KO those cubs and we'll have nice, dead, meat!"

"They aren't gonna eat us!" Bagheera called, much to the vulture's disappointment.

"Darn it," Cecil frowned, as they flew over the highest pillars and walls of the ruins. "Maybe we can eat that green, circle thingy."

"I don't think that's meat," Arthur informed regretfully.

"Green….circle…thingy?" Ty thought to herself, then she exclaimed "That's it! That's my human thing!"

But that just made all of the cubs perplexed. "How the heck did it get up there?" Baloo asked everyone else.

…

"So Ty had one of those soul-stealing devices?" Abigail asked in the present.

"None of us knew it at the time, I think not even her," Bagheera recalled.

"Do you think what you saw when you were a mere cub has any connection to what's going on at this Grand Hotel in the present day?" the Baron asked.

"Maybe, just maybe," Bagheera said.

Ratigan was still nervous in his cage. "I am dead….I am dead," he kept repeating to himself.

"Try anything funny and I think we can make that a reality rat boy," Kairel taunted.

Ratigan stayed quiet as Bagheera continued to recall the mystery he encountered from his past.

…

"What do you mean there's no way someone could've gotten it up there?" Ty asked. Akela and Leah had already gone to a different part of the jungle to be with their pups.

"It must've been some kind of bird," Baloo figured, hearing a noise. "That must be my stomach," he laughed, hearing a rumble.

"I don't think that's your gut, Baloo," Khan replied, "In fact, in sounds like it's coming from below us…."

"And I don't think my thief was some kind of bird," Ty replied flatly, "I would've heard their wings flapping."

"I guess the main thing now is," Hathi said, "Getting that human thingy down from up there."

"But that's going to be a problem," Bagheera said, "That wall the thing is on is one of the sturdiest in the whole place. I don't think we could tip it over if we tried."

"Well," Ty suggested, "If we can find out who stole it from me maybe they will say how they got it up there?"

"You think it was one of us?" Maris frowned, "Why would you say that?"

"You all seem like you want to get your claws on it," Ty replied, "And I can't blame you, it makes me look good."

"Statistically speaking," Honda said, "None of us could have possibly reached the top of that wall."

"What he said," Jayita nodded.

….

"Can you make it Kaa?" Hathi called. The snake was given the task of trying to scale his way up the side of the wall to grab the human thingy.

"I don't tttthink I'm gonna make it," Kaa called back. The wall was too wide for Kaa to wrap around, and thus, the snake fell to the ground with a thud. "Owch…." Kaa groaned, rubbing the sore top of his head with the tip of his tail.

"That looked fun," Oseer smiled.

Bagheera was looking around, not focusing on any of his friends of the wolves.

"What are you looking for?" Khan asked suddenly, the tiger suddenly appearing behind the panther cub.

"Clues," Bagheera replied simply to the tiger cub, "This doesn't make sense, there had to be some trick involved."

"Maybe it has to do with this sound I heard," Shere Khan commented like it was his own business.

"What sound?" Bagheera asked, confused.

"I was stalking some prey when I heard a thump," Khan explained, "It sounded like one of the stone tiles we find all over this place."

"Your right," Bagheera noted, looking and seeing one tile that was loose and did appear to belong in one particular location.

"Of course I'm right," Khan grinned, self-satisfied.

Bagheera then saw where a tile appeared to be missing from the side of a wall. It was slanted, and looking into the gap, the young panther saw a cylinder shaped object, with water dropping from it.

Shere Khan suddenly laughed. "Is it just me Bagheera or did you get smaller?"

"What are you talking about?" Bagheera asked, being the smart one of the 6 cubs. "I didn't get smaller, I think I just stepped in something that sa…" he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

"Cat got your tongue?" Khan joked.

"I've got it Shere Khan," Bagheera said, a big grin appearing on his face, "I know who the thief is, and how they got that human thingy up there!"

…..

"Ssssstill can't get it," Kaa hissed in minor pain, "Can I jussssst sssstop for the afternoon?" The snake had gotten sick of trying to keep slithering up the wall.

"Don't worry Kaa," Bagheera smiled, "I've got this whole mystery figured out."

"You do?" Ty smiled, glad that the panther was able to help her out, "Who took my human thing?"

"If my solution is correct," Bagheera replied, lifting up a paw, "The one who took the human thing was…you, Jayita!"

"ME?" Jayita gasped, then started to laugh, "How could I have possibly gotten that human thingy all the way up there?"

"You made use of these ruins," Bagheera explained, "As well as a hidden river of water underneath!"

"What are you talking about Baggy?" Baloo asked, getting ready to take a nap.

"You see this thing," Bagheera said, pointing to the cylinder, "It's called a pipe. And, if you stepped on a certain tile, it does this!"

The panther stepped on one tile that was lower than the rest, causing a blast of water to shoot out at an angle, high into the sky.

"Whoa…." Everyone awed, impressed.

"And if you put a tile in front of the pipe, the force of the water would be enough to get the human thing on the top of the impossible wall."

"But where's your proof that Jayita's the culprit?" Honda asked, "That's the key to solving a mystery, the concrete evidence."

"Her paws gave her away," Bagheera revealed, "From bottom to top, they were covered in mud. If it was just the bottom, I wouldn't be suspicious, but when I remembered you had to step on one tile to trigger the geyser, you paw would sink in and get dirtier than usual."

"But why Jayita?" Ty asked, surprised.

"Because that thing is dangerous," Jayita confessed, "I saw a man holding something that looked just like that point it at another man, and all of a sudden the other man just fell over with a blank look on his face. You can't keep that, Ty!"

"Ridiculous," Ty giggled, as the vultures accidently knocked the object to the ground. "Nothing like that would happen with us wolves, we know better."

As the wolves begin to walk away from the Cub House, Jayita kept trying to warn Ty, while Oseer rolled a coconut around.

"You mustn't hold onto that!" Jayita begged her friend.

"What was that all about?" Khan asked, confused.

…..

"A few days later, the rest of the wolves said Ty had disappeared. We tracked down her scent to the shore of the jungle, where we saw a human ship with cages departing. We guessed she had been captured by man," Bagheera recalled, regretfully.

"Do you have any idea where the humans took her?" Haku asked, thinking this might provide them with a lead.

"I'm afraid not," Bagheera responded regretfully, "The only thing I can remember was a big picture of a leaf."

"I haven't seen anything like that," Kairel admitted, "And I spent a lot of time on a boat recently."

"But what's the connection between then and now?" Abigail asked.

"I don't know yet," Bagheera replied as they went further down the tunnel, getting closer and closer to their destination.

…

Back in the resort's first floor, Spyro, Garfield, and Hadassah encountered Rabbit and Fox.

"Why are there still so many people here?" Spyro asked the police.

"There's some kind of force field," Fox informed, "It's preventing people from walking out the front door."

"Really?" Hadassah said, "That sucks especially now."

"What do you mean by that?" Rabbit asked.

"Well, let me explain," Hadassah said, being rather nonchalant, "You see, when we were looking at the host's murder scene, and Spyro here may have pressed a button, which may or may not have triggered a countdown."

"Countdown…..?" both Rabbit and Fox said, not liking where this was going.

"Yeah, pretty much," Hadassah nodded, "And now, we may or may not only have a little over an hour until we go boom!"

**TO BE CONCLUDED….**

**(All right folks, next episode, the season (and saga) comes to a close! Feel free to share your thoughts and your guesses on what is going on in your reviews. I've really enjoyed working on all these mysteries for the past year.)**


	13. Until We Meet Again

**The Toon Files Episode 78: Until We Meet Again…..**

"What are we going to do?" Rabbit asked, starting to panic, "Though we have helicopters prepared, we can't evacuate everyone in time, let alone convince everyone they need to get out of here!"

"Then we'll have to go to the source," Fox said.

"What do you mean?" Garfield asked, confused.

"The barrier made is clearly a magical one," the cop explained, "And right now, there's these magic soul stealers running around. They have to be the ones behind this. We'll have to find them and defeat them."

"But how could we find these guys?" Rabbit asked.

"We need to find Haku and the others," Fox reminded, "And I think I know just how to do that…."

….

Up in Robert's suite, the remaining detectives were searching for more clues.

"Seems the killer was the same as the thief," Yuna commented.

"What thief?" Conan asked, confused.

"During the first round, when the host was getting interviewed by some reporters, some masked figure came running up to him and swiped the sword emblem he was wearing. But the thief dropped the emblem, so Mr. Siland here was able to get it back."

"I did find that incident odd," Francis nodded.

"He did show us that new chain necklace," Conan recalled, "And how it's missing now."

"But why would the killer steal it?" Twilight commented, "You don't think the killer concocted a fancy scheme like this just to get a trinket?"

"And what was with that gun?" Chowder asked, "The guy wasn't shot, he was stabbed in the neck…."

Just then, the sound of an elevator door opening was heard and the three remaining staff members entered the room.

"This is the worst job I've ever had," Tammy said, distressed. "One of my new friends is dead, and I'm gonna get blown up!"

"But isn't there an evacuation going on?" Twilight pointed out.

"There's some magic seal on the entrance to the resort!" Vivian yelled.

"What?" Conan gasped.

"I could try to break the seal," Twilight offered, magic was the pony's specialty.

"We'll take all the help we can get," Dom said, scratching his fur.

Yuna, Francis, Chowder, Conan, and Monty were still looking for any other clue they could find in the deceased host's suite.

"We're gonna need to find a way to disarm the bombs ourselves," Conan said, "If only we can detect where they are."

"Well, it looks like this guy was cheap," Monty said suddenly.

…..

Down the passageway, the stalactites began looking sharper and sharper.

"Quite fitting for an environment such as this," the Baron noted, looking concerned.

But there was one major factor that none of the detectives could figure out quite yet. With all the soul stealing that had been going on around them, what was the motivation behind it all? Did the mastermind have some grudge against the victims or friends/relatives of the victims? Did the leader seek souls as a way of obtaining some kind of super power?

"It just doesn't make sense," Kairel noted, "Who could be behind all of this?"

"You know anything about that?" Abigail scowled to Ratigan.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything in that regard," the professor confessed, "My employer, whoever he or she is spoke in a voice so distorted I could not determine the gender."

As the group went along, Bagheera stepped in a certain small object, but he didn't realize it yet.

…

Fox being….well, a fox, was a natural carnivore, and thus, a great hunter, even if she didn't make use of her hunting skills all that often.

"This way…..I can just barely make out the trail," she said to Rabbit. She was able to just barely make out the scents of Bagheera, Abigail, and Haku.

"Nice one dear," Rabbit smiled. It took a few minutes, but they were able to find the area of the resort that where Haku's team began their descent to the cavern of the soul stealers.

"Let's just hope we can catch up with them," Fox said, she and her husband preparing to enter the cave when Fox suddenly detected a presence.

"WATCH OUT!" she exclaimed, pushing Rabbit aside just in time. A very sharp knife was all of a sudden embedded in the ground right where Rabbit had been standing.

"Where'd that come from?" Rabbit panted.

"Right here," a voice called, seemingly from nowhere. It was then that Randall made his appearance, hopping down in front of Rabbit and Fox.

"You…" Fox said, remembering reading newspaper articles from various worlds, "You were that employee from Monsters Inc, right?"

"You could say that…" Randall growled, upset about how he had lost everything thanks to that blasted Sully and cursed Mike.

"You're the one behind this?" Rabbit frowned.

"Not quite," Randall replied, "I'm just a soldier for the captain, you could say."

"You want our souls?" Fox figured.

"Not quite," Randall admitted, "You see, I've learned that master plans can backfire. And since you two are the only cops in the place, if the plan backfires and everyone gets their souls back, I've decided not to let myself get arrested…." The chameleon then pulled out a gun.

…..

"All these prices he circled on the food dishes," Conan said, looking at a menu, "Why would he circle the prices if there aren't any specials for the day?" He smirked, beginning to get an answer.

"Why is that?" Monty asked.

"The prices circled refer to room numbers," Conan explained, "Specifically rooms where the bombs have been planted."

"Great thinking Conan!" Chowder said, "Those rooms are all probably ones that don't get used much.

"But there has to be bombs planted in the theme park as well," the teen in a First grader's body commented, "Otherwise, based on these numbers, he wouldn't have been able to cause that much damage with the explosions."

"And I think I know how we can deactivate the explosives," Yuna added.

"How?" Monty asked.

"My good friend Lulu taught me some of her black magic, and I can use an ice spell to freeze the bombs," Yuna revealed.

"Great idea!" Conan smiled, "Yuna, you and Chowder go take care of the bombs. Monty, you and Francis come with me."

"What for?" the kart racer asked.

"I have a feeling I know who our suspects may be," Conan explained.

"Actually," Francis announced, "I think I'm gonna head downstairs and help the ones investigating Percy's death. They may need me to lend a paw."

"I understand, Francis," Conan nodded, he and the cat were now good friends.

As the detectives left the room, only 1 hour remained on the clock.

…

"Dance! Dance!" Randall cackled insanely as Rabbit and Fox jumped and flipped their way out his firing range.

Luckily, with the two's knowledge in kung fu, they were able to avoid serious injury, but they could tell Randall was being a major distraction.

"We aren't getting anywhere," Rabbit frowned as the two took cover. "Look Fox, you get into that cavern, I'll take care of Randall."

"You think you can take him on your own?" Fox yelled, "Are you crazy!"

"Look Fox," Rabbit replied with a sigh, "If we both get killed, then none of us can do anything to atone for failing last year."

"But….I don't want to lose…." Fox tried to retort, when Rabbit gave her a kiss.

"I'll be fine," Rabbit promised, "And even if I don't make it….you can remember me as a hero, at least."

Fox sighed, knowing Rabbit had a point. "Fine, you better live!" she smirked, getting her hopes up again.

The two then ran in separate directions. Rabbit hopped out of the hiding place first, distracting Randall long enough for Fox to slip into the cavern.

"So it's just you and me now, bunny boy?" Randall laughed.

"Exactly," Rabbit smirked.

…

Hadassah, Spyro, and Garfield had gone into the auditorium, where Percy's body was still hanging, left there to preserve any possible evidence. Francis soon arrived.

"You guys find anything?" the German feline detective asked.

"Not yet," Spyro replied.

"This still gives me the creeps," Garfield said. Even with his usual uncaring demeanor, the feline was genuinely disturbed by the sight of a dead body.

Spyro used his wings to get a closer examination of the dead kangaroo. "Seems he must've struggled when the noose was put around his neck," the dragon noted.

"What makes you say that?" Hadassah asked, looking over at a control panel. Some of the buttons read "Lock into position", "Set time for raise/lower", "Brighten/dim lights", and "Open arena."

"Hmmmmm…." Francis said, he and Hadassah were looking at the control panel carefully.

"Besides where he's hanging from, it looks like the back of his neck was pressed against the top of the noose, judging by these marks."

"I'm also sad I can't get the prize money now," Garfield sighed.

Spyro looked annoyed at Garfield's insensitivity, "There's more to life then material goods, ya know," the dragon scolded. "Wouldn't you agree somebody's life is more is more important than a jet ski, a trampoline, or some lousy money?"

Hadassah, in her usual snooping style, suddenly froze. She began to laugh in an awkward way.

"What's wrong with you?" Spyro asked the puppet crank caller.

"I know how it worked," Hadassah replied, "Though I don't know who the killer is, I think I know how someone was able to hang this guy even when no one else was in the room at the time!"

"We got one half of this mystery solved," Francis grinned.

…

Conan and Monty emerged from an elevator onto the resort's fourth floor. "It should be around here….ah! The employee lounge," Conan smiled.

"What should be here?" Monty asked.

"Tammy, Vivian, and Dom's lockers," Conan explained. Much to his good fortune, the 3 surviving contest staff members had their names labeled over their respective lockers.

"I'll take care of this," Monty smirked, picking the locks.

The lockers revealed a bit about the employee's hobbies. Tammy's locker was filled with golf clubs, as well as pictures of various famous golfers.

"She didn't seem like the type," Monty said, "But I do recall hearing this place has a golf course."

Vivian's locker was next. She evidently had an interest in fishing, as a fishing rod, fishing wire, and bait were found inside. "I did see a pond," Conan remembered.

Dom's locker was last. Apparently, the cat wanted to be a puppeteer, as both marionettes and Muppet-style puppets were found inside, with plenty of string, as well as other fixing/building supplies.

"Hmm…." Conan pondered, "I think I know where we should head next."

"I really wish you would just tell me this things," Monty sighed, following Conan.

…..

Deep in the caverns, the 5 detectives were nearing the end of the path.

"Just around these last few bends," Ratigan pointed, "My employer is probably waiting. Be on your guard, though."

"Bagheera," Abigail called to the panther, "You got something stuck between your claws."

Though that was barely a pressing concern, Bagheera decided to address it. When he picked it out, he noticed it was a flower. He found that odd, as no flora life he could see grew in these caverns, and the area where they entered the cave had no flower like this.

But he did recall seeing it in one place before. "It couldn't be…." The panther said, beginning to shake. "There's no way…."

…

In the Rabbit Vs. Randall fight, Rabbit had managed to disable the gun by kicking it hard with his feet.

"Damn you," Randall frowned, going into to bite Rabbit.

Rabbit was grazed by the sharp fangs, causing him to bleed slightly from the legs.

"You monster…" he growled.

"Why thank you, that's what I am," Randall chuckled, feeling complimented.

Rabbit pounced, and the two began to struggle, crashing through a glass pane to the restaurant portion of the Toon Town Grand Resort.

"Only one of us will be getting out of this alive!" Randall laughed.

….

Twilight was doing her best to combat the magical seal on the hotel entrance. Only 45 minutes remained until the explosion. The sheer amount of police cars finally managed to convince the guests that the time to panic had begun.

"What is this force?" Twilight grunted, her magic having little effect, only being able to chip away at the barrier very slightly.

The next escape helicopter was escorting out the hotel's doctor and the infirmary patients. The pony saw Fluttershy and Spike among them.

"I'll get your souls back somehow, I promise," Twilight mentally called to her friends, even though there was no way they could reply.

Yuna and Chowder then came running up. "We have good news," the summer panted. She and Chowder had been running for quite a bit.

"What is it?" Twilight questioned.

"We were able to dispose of most of the bombs in the hotel, now we just have to take care of the amusement park!" Yuna informed.

"That's great news!" Twilight smiled, "But we're not out of the ballpark….or in this case, resort, yet."

"Let's get going Yuna," Chowder called, taking off for the various rides.

….

CRASH! Conan had kicked Monty's racing helmet through a window so the two could enter the Grand Gardens, a portion of the hotel sealed off to most guests. It was a square enclosed area where several tall trees were planted.

"I take it there's a clue here?" Monty informed, hopping over the broken glass.

"Correct, if my assumptions are right," Conan replied.

The two looked around, until Monty came across a broken tree branch. "How did this fall?" he asked himself, then he found something right out of a comic book: a grappling hook!

"Conan, check this out!" Monty called, and Conan came running over, "Do you think this was the murder weapon?"

"No, I don't think so," Conan said in response, "I don't see on any traces of blood. Besides, the hook is too big to fit through the small distance the window could open."

"We should get back to the others, I don't know if there's anything else we can do," Monty said, and Conan nodded.

As they headed back to the makeshift door, Conan bumped something with his foot. He picked it up. "It's his sword emblem!" Conan exclaimed, "And there's blood traces on it?"

….

The 5 detectives finally made their way to the end of the cavern, while Belladonna and the mysterious leader were. Fox was further back in the tunnel, running as fast as she could to catch up.

"You were always a fool Ratigan," Belladona taunted. Using precise accuracy, she fired a soul bullet right into the cage, taking Ratigan's soul.

"So much for corporate trust," Kairel frowned, "What are you after?"

"I want the one I need back," the mysterious leader said.

"And according to my calculations, we just need two more souls to complete this," Belladonna said, firing into the five.

Haku, Abigail, and Bagheera jumped out of the way, but Kairel and the Baron were caught off guard.

"KAIREL! BARON!" NOO!" Abigail shrieked.

"And for good measure…" the mysterious figure said, firing a sneak shot on Belladonna out of nowhere.

"Excuse me?" Belladonna frowned, she was unaffected because, being a hellhound, she had no soul. "I get so much for you, and this is how you repay me? Ya know what? I quit."

Belladonna opened a portal to hell to excuse herself. Before she departed, she turned to the woodmouse, river spirit, and panther. "Take this guy down," she said, giving words of encouragement, then she disappeared.

"It's time…." The mysterious person said, turning towards an alter. "ARISE!" the voice yelled.

"Stop this now…KATE!" Bagheera shouted.

…

Rabbit and Randall were rolling around the Wildcat Café. "Fitting, it is rabbit season I hear," Randall taunted as Rabbit got tossed into the kitchen.

"I'm not done yet…" Rabbit groaned, though he was admittedly feeling weaker.

"DIE!" Randall yelled, pulling a knife and going for a stab. Rabbit could only evade, but not counter.

"Give up?" the chameleon taunted, "If you stop trying now I'll finish you off in one quick slash…"

"Never…" Rabbit said weakly, retreating through a doorway.

"Wow you are getting desperate," Randall said, following. The door was small, so he felt the room was going to be a dead end.

But when Randall stepped inside, he saw Rabbit close the door on the opposite side of the metal chamber.

"What the?" Randall asked.

"NNOWWW!" Rabbit called. Suddenly, the room began to get hot. And then, fire started emitting from the floor.

Rabbit had tricked Randall into Wildcat's oven!

"Oh no…" Randall gasped in genuine fear.

"Thank you…" Rabbit paned to Wildcat, the Duke, and Shere Khan.

"Anything for a valued customer," Wildcat smiled, "Though I don't think I've ever cooked chameleon before…"

"Eh, I'll eat it," the Duke shrugged.

…

Conan had learned that someone had stolen a ladder from a janitor's closet. He had begun to get an idea of who the killer was, though he didn't have absolute proof yet.

Conan and Monty met up with Spyro, Hadassah, Twilight, Francis (who had been looking through the other rooms for bombs after assisting the others), and Garfield in the hotel's lobby.

"Any luck Twilight?" Francis asked.

"Barely any, I'm afraid."

Chowder and Yuna came running up. "I've got bad news and good news," Yuna informed. "The bad news is we couldn't find all of the amusement park bombs."

"Then what's the good news?" Hadassah panicked.

Yuna smirked, holding a phone. "The good news is, I called for backup." Indeed, at that moment, Yuna's uncle Cid had piloted an airship out of Spira and into Toon Town. Outside in the vast theme park, all of the people were safely being escorted. Rabbit was too weak from his fight with Randall to travel down the tunnel, so he had to be taken out on Cid's airship. Wildcat, The Duke of Owls, and Shere Khan had to escape the same method.

Only the detectives and Dom, Tammy, and Vivian were left.

"Come on all of you," a helicopter pilot called, "Last call for safety."

The detectives and the staff all climbed aboard, but Conan couldn't help but feel there was something odd…..yet familiar about this pilot.

….

The mysterious figure finally unmasked herself, revealing it was, indeed, none other than Kate. The alpha from Jasper Park turned towards the three remaining detectives. "The three of you will witness the return on my beloved Humphrey," she said, almost no malice in her voice.

"What are you doing?" Haku demanded to know.

"Do you know what the last year has been like for me?" Kate asked, beginning to shed a tear. "I lost the love of my life, and he hadn't done anything wrong. I hadn't done anything wrong. Why did it have to be this way? That tormented me for so many nights. One evening, I found one of the wolves from Jasper's past had a special object that could collect souls. Doing some research, I uncovered that the souls collected could be used to bring back the fallen. But I knew I couldn't do this on my own, so I recruited those 3."

"And this tournament?" Abigail asked.

"I did some more research on Starlight Manor…" Kate replied, as a wolf shape began to form on a celestial platform.

…

"Since we're all here together," Francis smirked, "And since we've compared notes, I think it's time to reveal who the murderer is!"

"What?" Dom, Tammy, and Vivian gasped.

"First, let's start with Percy's murder," Hadassah began. "The killer managed to hang him even though what we uncovered says he had to be alone in the auditorium until the time of death."

"But then, Garfield here helped us find the answer," Spyro smirked, "It was all about the prizes."

"Namely, the trampoline," Yuna added, having been filled in on the details. "The killer knocked out Percy, put the noose around his neck, then set him on the trampoline, where his body would not yet be hung. Using the control panel, the culprit set it so the trampoline would lower in a half hour and the floor would close up."

"That's what caused those marks on his neck," Francis added, "And why he was so sweaty."

"But what about the second death?" Dom asked, "How was that possible?"

"It was quite possible," Conan said, taking the lead, "Especially for you…..Vivian!"

"What?" the fox gasped. Tammy and Dom looked equally shocked. "How could I have killed Mr. Siland?"

"Using your hobby," Monty said. "You stole a ladder and went out to the balcony below the host's room. You climbed up, set yourself at an angle, and carefully worked a hook onto his chain necklace."

"But before that, you attached a grappling hook to the wire, and you fired at one of the extra tall branches," Conan continued. "That caused the sword emblem, from the force of the firing, to go into Robert's neck."

"And you were the thief," Twilight added, "You stole the emblem but dropped it so he would wear the harder to break chain necklace."

"The sword emblem cut into his throat, and once you were sure he was dead, you tossed the necklace and the hook into the Grand Gardens, thinking no one would find it," Conan added.

"But where's your proof I did this?" Vivian demanded to know.

"Your shoes," Conan replied flatly, "You had to hold onto the window frame carefully, and you put your shoe up against the frame. But what we thought were claw marks I realize now was actually the letter v repeatedly, and all 3 of you have your first letter's imprinted on your shoes."

Vivian gasped, she had been found out.

"But why Vivian?" Tammy asked, horrified.

"We think it has to do with Starlight Manor…" Francis replied.

….

"And that's all it took to manipulate Mr. Siland into starting the stupid tournament and gathering enough powerful souls for me to collect," Kate explained, "I figured out it was him who committed that murder. I wanted to use his power and influence to gather a large group of people. I created a fake list of the 16 detectives who competed in the tournament and said that one of them had figured out what he had done, and if wanted a chance to confront the detective and silence him or her, he would have to hold this tournament."

It was then at that moment did Humphrey appear on the platform, his body was not yet fully recreated, he was still a spirit at this second.

"W….what the?" the young wolf asked, looking around, "Where am I?"

"You're back!" Kate cried happily, running up to him. Since Humphrey's face was mostly physical now, she was able to nuzzle him again.

"Kate?" Humphrey asked, "How did you get me back?"

"I…pulled some strings," Kate smiled, her eyes all filled with tears, feeling the warmth of Humphrey's body again.

For a second, Bagheera, Abigail, and Haku felt the heartwarming the reunion before them triggered.

Humphrey, bewildered yet happy, nuzzled his mate for the first time in a year (because he obviously couldn't have done it when he was dead.) "It's great to see you again Kate," he cooed gently.

It was then the three remaining detectives remembered what they were trying to stop.

"Humphrey, she brought you back from the dead unnaturally!" Bagheera called.

"With people's souls!" Abigail called, "Sir, if you get revived so many people will have been sacrificed to do so!"

"What?" Humphrey gasped, "I don't want this, Kate."

"W….what?" Kate asked, beginning to tear up, "But…I've been alone for so long. Yes, Lily and Garth have been there for me, but…"

"I'm sorry," a voice suddenly called. Fox had managed to catch up with the others. "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to prevent your mate's death."

"Huh?" Kate asked, feeling overwhelmed.

"For the past year, Rabbit and I were feeling terrible over the lives we were unable to save," Fox sighed, "William, Tantor, Quistis, and Humphrey. We've practically been beating ourselves up. We're sorry Kate, we truly are."

"Please become whole again Humphrey," Kate begged, receiving a comforting nuzzle from her mate.

"Kate….don't worry, I'll always be there for you," Humphrey promised, "….Even if I can't be here with you physically."

"So…this is goodbye?" Kate said, beginning to control her tears.

"Until we meet again," Humphrey promised, "But…I'll always be around for you." Humphrey slowly stepped back into the portal he emerged from, and several balls of light shot out. The stolen souls were being returned.

"We're back," the Baron said, seeing himself and Kairel get back up.

Fox, Abigail, and Kairel ran over to Kate to comfort her, seeing how she needed it.

….

"It's true," Vivian sighed, "The person who committed suicide back at the case was my best friend. I wouldn't have sought revenge if it weren't for the fact I found out that that detective's deduction had been incorrect!"

"Who was the detective?" Chowder asked.

"**P**rivate **I**nvestigator, **P**ercy **I**vers," Vivian explained, "Cheap wordplay, huh? I soon learned that Robert was the true murderer, and I found he had bribed Percy to give the false deduction. I overheard them discussing it the other day."

"That's why he didn't want to talk about the case," Dom realized.

"Well, I guess it's time for me to depart," Vivian said, suddenly opening the helicopter door.

"What?" Everyone gasped, seeing Vivian jump out!

"Take the controls kid," the pilot suddenly smirked, jumping out after the fox.

"Wait sir!" Twilight called, but suddenly, the pilot looked different. Conan could only smirk at what he saw.

There was Phantom Thief Kid, dressed in his white outfit and emerging from under his disguise was his signature hang glider!

"What the?" Vivian asked, bewildered as she had been stopped from her suicide attempt.

"I can't let such a pretty young girl die," Kid smiled, "That goes against what I stand for."

He carefully glided down next to a police car outside the resort, "Now I'll leave you in the hands of the law."

"Uh….thank you," Vivian said, still in shock.

"That guy…." Conan smiled from up in the helicopter. As he figured, Kid was the flash he had seen when he was warped to Toon Town.

….

Kid's assistance had been more than just saving Vivian. He was able to detect and disarm the bombs in the amusement park, preventing the resort from going up in flames.

With all the souls returned, Kate's spell over the front entrance had been broken, and all of the guests were able to resume their stay.

As for Kate herself, although she would be punished, because of her sheer trauma and the lack of actual death, she would be sentenced to just community service. Lily, Garth, Fox, and Rabbit would be there for her every step of the way.

Ratigan had been arrested, Belladonna resumed her duties in hell, and Randall was served with a side of French Fries to Sully.

"Man this is tasty," the blue monster smiled, being the one who ate the evil monster.

Twilight was overjoyed to see Fluttershy and Spike were back to normal. "I missed you two so much," she cried in tears of joy.

"I get the feeling this may result in a very long friendship report…" Spike smiled.

"Nice to see ya back, squirt," Rabbit grinned to Skunk.

"Hey!" Skunk laughed, chasing after Rabbit, though Fox jumped in her husband's defense, giving him a kiss.

"It seems all's well that ends well," Chowder smiled.

"Kid, don't use cheesy clichés," Garfield sighed.

The amount of reporters who arrived once the chaos was all over was practically a flood.

"I can't believe you guys missed out on this," Vitani said to Kovu and Kiara.

"Well, we have a good reason," Kovu smirked.

"You're gonna be an aunt soon Vitani, just telling," Kiara winked.

Sagwa and the other junior reporters came running up to the detectives who had been competitors. "What was it like solving the mystery of the Grand Resort?" Sagwa asked.

"It was not easy," Francis and Monty chuckled.

"Is there anything you want to say to the folks at home or maybe even back in your world?" Fievel asked.

Conan had an idea. He gathered Monty, Francis, Chowder, Yuna, Hadassah, Twilight, Garfield, Spyro, Abigail, Bagheera, Haku, Kairel (who was now dating Dagnino, surprisingly), the Baron, Bartok, and Skunk.

"Just repeat what I said and how I moved," Conan said after a brief rehearsal. He then turned back to Sagwa. "If there's one thing we wanna say….it's…."

All of the 16 detectives made a pose. "With a keen eye for details, one truth prevails!"

…

**The Spirit Realm…20 years later…..**

There was a certain train going down the tracks. Not surprisingly, the tracks were completely flooded, though this was usual for this season.

"What happened to you?" Cornelius the badger asked, sitting next to Kate on the train.

"A disease," Kate replied to the badger who had recently passed away, "I was able to say my goodbyes, though."

"I heard about what happened back then," Cornelius smiled gently, "I can imagine there's someone waiting for you."

"What about you?" Kate asked in return.

"My dear sister," Cornelius smiled, "As well as my mother and father. I've missed them all so much."

When the train got to the next station, Kate and Cornelius stepped off. Also departing from the train were some former kings, Simba and Caltrin. The two had become friends in the afterlife, Simba inquiring about the time Kiara, Kovu, and Vitani had solved the case in his castle.

"It's a long story," Caltrin chuckled. Ageel had since taken the throne since his father passed.

On the train's stop stood a few familiar faces. Mila, Richard, Ari, and Slick were waiting to go to the bathhouse.

"Sounds like Yubaba is more allowing of human spirits," Ari recalled overhearing.

"And the food there is great, seems Wildcat expanded his business," Mila nodded.

"I have to agree," Quistis suddenly spoke up. The former SeeD instructor was now one of the higher-ups at the bathhouse, and it was making more money than ever.

Cornelius reunited with his sister and parents. As they embraced each other, a rabbit, a doll, and a mouse came up to him.

"Nice to see you Cornelius," 1 smiled.

"Who would've thought Basil and Bianca would have been the last of us to go?" Jonathan smirked.

"Exactly," Nerris nodded.

As Kate waved goodbye to the friends she made on the train, she looked around for a certain someone, and at first could not find him.

"Hey Kate," Humphrey called suddenly. The alpha wolf immediately turned to see her mate standing before her.

"Oh Humphrey," Kate cooed. Because of the magic of the realm, she had been transformed back into the form she was the last time the two of them were both alive all those years ago.

The two were finally reunited.

….

And so, that's how the book ends on the story of the Toon Files. Maybe there will be more cases in the future, crime never truly stops. But you can count on if there's a misdemeanor, someone will always be there to find the facts and get the answers.

Since everyone just repeated the famous catchphrase, I don't feel the need to repeat myself, but, nevertheless…..

Case closed.


End file.
